If you’re sick of hearing that one jingle about lowering your A1C, you may soon be in luck.

On the campaign trail last year, then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’d ban pharmaceutical TV ads on his first day in office, claiming that the industry’s ad dollars had warped media coverage of the category. Today, he’s the secretary of Health and Human Services, which the Wall Street Journal recently described as something of a “worst-case scenario for drugmakers,” as he is now responsible for regulating the same industry he’s skeptical of. Other high-level Trump administration officials, including FCC chair Brendan Carr, have also voiced support for a drug advertisement ban.

While there have been no calls yet for a widespread pharma advertising ban (not to mention the fact that such efforts would almost certainly face legal challenges), pharma advertisers told Marketing Brew that they’re already bracing for disruption, whichever form it takes.

“We all expect change, we’re all planning for change,” Andrea Palmer, the CEO of Publicis Health Media, told Marketing Brew. “We don’t know what that change is going to be.” To better understand what is at stake, the agency is working with consultants in Washington, DC, to better understand any shift to the regulatory landscape, Palmer told us.

Pharma advertisers have an outsized impact on the advertising economy, with TV ad spend from pharma reaching an estimated $5.15 billion in 2024 and accounting for 11.6% of all total linear TV ad spend, according to the firm iSpot. The programming that saw the biggest pharma advertising investments in 2024 were the NFL, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, per iSpot.

• But linear TV spend makes up only a fraction of the total spend from the category. In total, US healthcare and pharmaceutical companies were expected to spend $30 billion on advertising last year, with $23 billion going to digital advertising, according to eMarketer.

Any kind of new restrictions around pharma advertising, though, could have wide-ranging repercussions.

Continue reading here.—RB

This upfronts season, some of YouTube’s biggest creators are baring their souls for advertising dollars—their content souls, that is.

Last week, the media investment company Spotter held its inaugural Spotter Showcase, an upfronts-style event that spotlighted creators like MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Ryan Trahan, Rebecca Zamolo, Jordan Matter, Kinigra Deon, and others. During the presentation, creators unveiled upcoming content plans and potential partnership opportunities with the hope of enticing advertisers and CMOs “from blue-chip companies” in attendance, according to Spotter President Nic Paul.

The event marked the first time Spotter has hosted an external event with creator partners; earlier efforts from the company have focused on supporting creators internally with production, licensing, and other costs associated with content creation, Paul said.

“As we’ve evolved, monetization has been something we are helping creators with because of the attention that they garner,” Paul told us. “But also, creators are very much the networks of today, producing the hit TV shows of today. They are studio execs.”

Read more here about what creators pitched during the presentation.—JN

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Dirk Poschenrieder is managing director, Havas Life Düsseldorf. He has spent more than 20 years in the marketing and communications business, working for companies including Deutsche Post DHL, Sony, Johnson & Johnson, and Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish Health.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? I juggle client demands, big ideas, and budgets to make sure everything runs smoothly. My job is part strategist, part therapist, and part firefighter, putting out any “creative emergencies” while keeping the agency on track, and the chaos (mostly) under control. Basically, I make sure we win pitches, keep clients happy, and deliver ads that don’t make people cringe.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? It’s impossible to choose just one, so I’m going to focus on 2024. One of my absolute favorites is one from Klick Health for Café Joyeux and tells the real story of a man with Down syndrome seeking a job. Not only is it beautifully animated with lots of love and attention to detail, but the commercial was cocreated with members of the Down syndrome community. I love it and I’m a little bit jealous, I must admit.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’ve probably spent more time debating the color of a button in an ad than most people spend choosing a car. (Spoiler: the button color always matters.)

Read more here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• WPP acquired data startup InfoSum, which it will fold into GroupM.
• Meta inked a multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal with the UFC that makes the tech giant the official fan technology partner of the MMA league.
• DoorDash is replacing Margaritaville as the title sponsor of Major League Pickleball.
• Paramount partnered with TV measurement company iSpot to test how viewers are reacting to ads.