If you’ve ever found yourself absentmindedly humming the “oh-oh-oh-Ozempic” jingle, you have David Paton to blame.
The singer-songwriter, who was in the Bay City Rollers, co-wrote “Magic” — the 1975 hit for his band Pilot that he reworked and sang for the trendy weight-loss drug’s TV commercials, which play incessantly on network television.
“I have heard from doctors about patients not remembering the names of drugs but singing the songs,” a former product manager for drug companies that include Merck and Pfizer, told The Post. “Of course the doctors validate the drug names. But they know what their patients are referring to. They’ve also seen the commercials.”
Indeed, “One thing drug advertising does is teach people the branded names,” Adrienne Faerber, a researcher in drug advertising, marketing and policy, told The Post. “Jingles are perfect for that.
“How do you learn your ABCs? Through a song. How do you learn a drug name? Through a song. The songs are super upbeat, even when they talk about diseases and terrible side effects.”
(See also: Jardiance, “the little pill with a big story to tell” and a maddening jingle.)
It can cost billions of dollars to develop a pharmaceutical, so promoting it is essential. And that all starts with the name.
The process often begins with a list of some 1,000 names, according to Scott Piergrossi, president of creative for Brand Institute, a prolific namer of pharmaceuticals. “We try to craft a name that is typical of proven names,” he told The Post. “They would have five to nine letters and two to four syllables.”
But it even comes down to the exact letters.
“Let’s say there is an oral drug instead of an injectable, we’ll explore something that sounds liquidy or has an O in it,” Fernando Fernandez, managing director of BX: Brand Experience Design Group, told The Post. “If we expect a product to have an extra level of efficacy, we might put an X in the name.”
Research has shown consumers like taking drugs with the letter Z, which may have played a role in the naming of Ozempic and Zepbound. “Some people say that a Z or an X makes a name stand out and seem unique,” one big pharma exec told The Post.
According to the Canadian Medical Journal, the letters X, Y and Z all impart a “high tech, sciency” [sic] feeling to drugs such as the sleeping medication Xanax.
The executive likes Xanax for another reason: “It’s a palindrome.” But, he added, “people had to learn to pronounce the X as a Z. Maybe it could not begin with a Z because the FDA thought it made too much of a promise about getting users to sleep.”
Sometimes the same drug has multiple names, depending on its usage. For instance, most of today’s popular weight-loss injectables started out as drugs for Type 2 diabetes.
Zepbound, for instance, has the same formulation as the diabetes drug Mounjaro and both are produced by Eli Lilly.
While the company that came up with the Zepbound name is so tightlipped that its reps won’t even acknowledge having done the job, the big pharma executive told The Post: “Zepbound just sounds to me like an inspired pickup of the generic name, Tirzepatide.”
Likewise, Ozempic is approved to lower blood sugar in patients with Type 2 diabetes — while Wegovy, which shares its parent company Novo Nordisk and chief ingredient, semaglutide — is intended for weight loss.
“People have hesitancy about taking drugs,” a medical advertising veteran told The Post. “If they don’t have diabetes, they wonder why they are taking a diabetes drug to lose weight. The weight-loss drug has to be called something different, even though it is very close to being the same thing. The name Wegovy is playful and memorable and obviously works.”
Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler and Sharon Osbourne have all admitted to using the diabetic version for weight loss, while Elon Musk attributed a 20-pound weight loss to Wegovy and fasting.
Members of a naming team often “put together a brand personality,” said the ad veteran. “They might ask, ‘If the drug is a car, would it be a Ferrari or a Mazda?’ Then they work through finding a name within those parameters [and others].”
In the case of Latisse, which is used for eyelash growth and was promoted by Claire Danes, it had to sound sexier than Lumigan — the glaucoma drug it came from after it was discovered that eyelash growth was a side effect of Lumigan.
Because Latisse “is almost in the cosmetic space, we looked at artistry and music while conveying the confidence and excitement that come with having longer lashes,” Piergrossi said. “The art theme came through because you ‘sculpt’ eye lashes.”
Of many art-oriented names that were considered, one rose to the top: “The French painter and sculptor [Henri] Matisse. He is in the name. Plus, ‘La’ comprises the starting letters of lash and it sounds very feminine.”
The strategy must have worked. Between 2009 and 2018, Latisse generated more than $70 million in sales per year.
“Research has shown that if you ask for a specific medicine, sometimes the doctor wants to get you out of the office and will just prescribe what you ask for,” the ad veteran said. “At the end of the day, they give you what you want unless they have a strong reason not to.”
