Sanofi Gets Jennifer Lopez to Hawk Pentacell Pertussis Vaccine

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Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines unit of Sanofi-Aventis, has persuaded singer Jennifer Lopez to become its joint spokesperson with the March of Dimes‘ “the Sounds of Pertussis,” campaign. (There’s even a video, in which Lopez looks strangely like Law & Order’s Mariska Hargitay.)

The effort is to persuade parents to get their kids* vaccinated against whooping cough, which can be fatal if they transmit it to their babies.

By amazing coincidence, Sanofi makes vaccines for pertussis, such as Adacel for adults and Pentacel for kids.

Lopez said:

I didn’t know too much about it before becoming a parent but whooping cough is on the rise. There have been a significant increase in reported cases over the past decade.

Cases of pertussis have gone from about 1,000 in 1976 to more than 25,000 in 2005, according to the CDC (via ABC).

On the other side of this issue is Jim Carrey, who recently wrote a lengthy anti-vaccines screed on Huffington Post:

… surely there’s a limit as to how many viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child.

I’m not saying that anti-vaccine paranoia has increased cases of whooping cough in America, but it sure isn’t helping. Perhaps Lopez and Carrey can duke it out on Larry King.

*Correction: The goal of the campaign is to get adults vaccinated against whooping cough, not babies. BNET regrets the error. See comments section below.

Tags: Vaccine, Payroll, Sanofi, Healthcare, Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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BNET's Jim Edwards

04/29/09 | Report as spam

RE: Sanofi Gets Jennifer Lopez to Hawk Pentacell Pertussis Vaccine

The March of Dimes writes:

Dear Mr. Edwards:

We appreciate your efforts to cover the Sounds of Pertussis campaign from the March of Dimes and sanofi pasteur. However, the article you posted on April 23, 2009 contains inaccurate information that is confusing for parents. We hope you will correct this as soon as possible.

The vaccine you reference in your article is the infant DTaP vaccine, not an adult/adolescent Tdap vaccine. The goal of the campaign is to encourage new parents and caregivers to get an ADULT pertussis vaccine, called a Tdap booster. The CDC recommends this adult booster for all adults and adolescents 11-64 years of age, especially those around newborns, because the infants are not fully protected against the pertussis until they have received their full primary series of immunizations with three or four doses.

While pertussis may be mistaken as a bad cough or bronchitis in adults, it is potentially fatal for babies. When researchers have been able to identify the source of an infant?s pertussis, more than half the time the disease had been transmitted by a parent. In recent years, about 90% of pertussis deaths have occurred in infants younger than 4 months of age. In fact, just two weeks ago, a newborn in the Midwest died of pertussis. Clearly, it is important for parents to know about Tdap vaccination. Unfortunately, a 2007 survey showed that only 2% of all adults 18-64 years of age had ever received a Tdap vaccination despite the CDC?s recommendation that adults and adolescents 11-64 be vaccinated.

Neither the campaign nor Ms. Lopez are in any way promoting a specific brand of vaccine, and the March of Dimes does not endorse specific products or brands. The goal of this campaign is to educate adults about the pertussis booster and why they need to get vaccinated to protect themselves from contracting pertussis and potentially transmitting the disease to the babies in their lives. The Tdap pertussis booster vaccine is available in the U.S. from two manufacturers.

Douglas A. Staples
Senior Vice President
Strategic Marketing & Communications
March of Dimes