New Media Opportunity for Drug Firms: Video Games

(MoneyWatch)  Perhaps you're tired of seeing the same healthy-looking people in drug ads hiking across craggy rocks or picking up their grandkids or wafting gently off to sleep while a slew of side effects (in fine print, natch) scrolls quickly by. If so, the pharmaceutical industry has another offer for you: How about a quick game of "Viva Cruiser"? Or "Captain Novolin?"

Just kidding -- neither of those drug-promotion videogames (for Viagra and a branded insulin, respectively) are actually available anymore. But as BNET Pharma blogger Jim Edwards notes today, Sanofi-Aventis has just become the latest drug company to plunge into the online videogame business with "Silence Your Rooster," a game that pits a pillow-armed insomniac against pop-up roosters that threaten his or her night's sleep. Of course, it's intended to raise "brand awareness" of the sleepy drug Ambien.
The games may not be gripping, and of course it's far from clear whether they actually help sell drugs. But they're clear evidence that drugmakers are beginning to stake out some interesting territory in Internet media.