Arthur Sackler Character Analysis

An adman who transformed the pharmaceutical advertising industry. In 1951, while working for the ad firm William Douglas McAdams, Sackler created a massive advertising campaign for Terramycin, a synthetic antibiotic created by Charles Pfizer and Company. Sackler’s goal for the campaign was to make Pfizer a household name, and he succeeded. Sackler’s innovative campaign was focused on frequent, in-person contact with doctors. Sackler sent doctors postcards advertising the drug and sent sales representatives to doctors’ offices. The campaign was successful: in 1952, Terramycin generated $45 million in sales. Sackler went on to buy William Douglas McAdams, as well as the then-unknown drug company Purdue Frederick. Sackler would use similar advertising strategies in his later campaign for Valium in the 1960s, this time going so far as to send salespeople into doctors’ offices bearing free samples of the drug. Sackler’s work in advertising showed the pharmaceutical industry “that amazing things can be achieved with direct selling and intensive direct advertising,” a philosophy that, after his death, Purdue would employ in their OxyContin campaign.