Diet pill causes online verbal diarrhoea

MEDIA MARKETING:DRUG COMPANY GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had a problem when it unveiled Alli in the US two years ago. The over-the-counter diet pill can assist in weight loss, but its process on your internal organs can also lead to a dose of the trots.

Rather than be bashful about this side-effect, GSK was upfront, with a warning label on the packaging “to wear dark underwear and bring a change of clothes with you to work until you have a sense of any treatment effects”. This was fodder for late-night comedians Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, although their ridicule benefited GSK to the extent that it brought the drug to the attention of consumers.

Alli works by preventing some of the body’s enzymes from digesting about a quarter of the fat you eat. As undigested fat cannot be absorbed, it passes out of the body in your stools.

This is not much of an issue if the pill is used is part of a controlled diet of reduced calories and lower-fat foods, but if users eat too much fat, they notice fatty, soft or oily stools, sudden bowel motions and flatulence.

“If you get a diet-related treatment effect, see it as a signal that you’ve eaten a meal or snack that may have contained more than your recommended fat target,” says GSK.

So for Alli to be effective in assisting weight loss, users need to change their eating and exercise habits. If they continue to chomp on their Big Mac and fries, they’ll be dashing to the bathroom.

Getting this marketing message across is not easy and, as is the fashion these days, GSK even weighed in with a corporate Alli blog in an attempt to educate consumers on proper usage.

The blog was the idea of Steve Burton, vice-president of weight control for GSK consumer healthcare. However, Burton parted company with GSK weeks after his glasnost went too far and he posted this blog: “I ate a fish sandwich and French fries with tartar sauce and a soda. Really smart, huh? Good thing I was close to home so I could change my clothes. But you know what? It hasn’t happened since. Yes, I still see occasionally undigested fat floating in the toilet, but I’d rather have the fat flushed away when I go to the bathroom than have it wrap around my waist or clog my arteries.”

The unfortunate truth for GSK is that, while American women love the idea of popping a pill to shed the kilos, they are less enthusiastic about changing their diet. The result is that the drug has flopped in the US, where sales amounted to $247 million (€177 million) in 2007 but dropped to $131 million last year.

Now Alli is being rolled out across Ireland. GSK has pushed the boat out with perspex display units showcasing Alli in about 1,800 pharmacies. The launch is being supported by television advertising and GSK maintains that the per-capita sales for Alli in Ireland is already among the highest in Europe.

GSK has also devised an Irish website for Alli, though there is no sign of a blog or chatroom.

The packaging is a bit different from the American packaging too. The information on side-effects is limited to noting that “fat passes out of your body and may cause changes to your bowel movements. Eat lower-fat meals to help manage these effects.”

Although advertising can persuade women to sample the product, Alli’s fate in Ireland will be decided by word-of-mouth and, increasingly, that means the blogosphere. Google the phrase “Alli + side effects” and countless US message boards pop up with users recounting their experiences, and much of it is not for readers with a queasy disposition.

In Ireland, the message board that counts is Boards.ie, where Alli has attracted little adverse comment to date.

Public relations executives admit that one of their roles these days is to join the blog debate for the benefit of their clients, though GSK says it would never stoop that low.

Pharmacies have rowed in behind Alli because it is good for business: it costs €56 for a four-week supply.

siobhan@businessplus.ie