Botox bets on men to inject life into a brand facing competition
Call it Brotox.
Allergan Plc is rolling out its first advertising campaign that directly pitches its blockbuster wrinkle-smoothing treatment Botox to men, a spokesperson said Monday.
Botox, which is injected into the skin, is used mostly by women.
But in the new ads it’s men who are being urged to take care of those frown lines, crow’s feet and forehead lines.
“It’s the details that make the difference,” a narrator intones over upbeat music as a smooth-faced business type knots his tie, a bearded architect in a J. Crew-worthy sweater draws lines on plans (lines, get it?) and an older man jogs through a picturesque forest.
“Ask your doctor about Botox Cosmetic by name,” the narrator urges.
The name Botox has become a kind of shorthand for efforts to turn back the clock with cosmetic procedures - despite the fact it was only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002.
Yet Allergan’s signature drug is facing growing competition. Earlier this year, Mylan NV announced a tie-up with Revance Therapeutics Inc. to develop a copycat version of the wrinkle treatment. Revance posted its own promising data with an experimental drug that appeared, in some studies, to last longer than Botox. That’s caused some analysts to worry about how Botox will hold up, but the company says it’s been dealing with competition for years.
In other efforts to bolster the brand, Allergan is creating a U.S. medical institute to train tens of thousands of health-care professionals to inject Botox.