Happy Feet promote Roche
characters from movie selling Tamiflu vaccine
Characters from the upcoming animated movie Happy Feet are promoting Roche Pharmaceutical's website flufacts.com
(Source: www.bcdb.com)
Characters from Warner Bros.' upcoming animated movie Happy Feet are promoting an anti-flu vaccine from Hoffmann-La Roche.
Cartoon penguins from the movie are involved in a major ad campaign for the pharmaceutical company, appearing on cable and network TV commercials, full-page magazine and online banner ads. They're pitching Hoffman-La Roche's website www.flufacts.com.
The site dispenses advice on how to recognize the symptoms of influenza (otherwise known as "the flu"), and how best to combat the disease. Not surprisingly, the site promotes Hoffmann-La Roche's product Tamiflu (real name Oseltamivir) as the best method of treating the virus.
The two companies decided to work together since Happy Feet is coming out in the middle of flu season.
"We wanted to communicate the risk of flu and drive consumers to our Web site," said Mike McGuire, vice-president of anti-infectives at Hoffmann-La Roche. "We wanted a different way to reach our target audience, which is moms."
Happy Feet director George Miller is a former doctor. He approved of the Hoffmann-La Roche marketing plan, as well as other commercial tie-ins to companies such as Burger King, General Mills, Pepperidge Farms, Doubletree Hotels and Sears.
Happy Feet, which stars Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman,opens November 17.
