Markets

Viagra, the Movie: How Bad Will Anne Hathaway's New Film Be for Pfizer?

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 28, 2010 / 2:42 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

UPDATE: Will Sex Scenes in "Love and Other Drugs" Pose a PR Problem for Pfizer?

The PR people at Pfizer (PFE) are likely girding for the release of "Love and Other Drugs," starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, which is about a Viagra sales rep with less-than-sterling ethics. The movie is based on the book "Hard Sell" by Jamie Reidy, a former Pfizer rep who claimed to be the company's top Viagra salesman. That book painted the pharmaceutical industry in such a negative light that Reidy lost his job at Eli Lilly (LLY), where he was working when it was published.

A trailer for the movie was released this weekend, and it's already had a quarter of a million views on YouTube. So how bad will this be for the biggest drug company in the world?

The answer is bad, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. "The Constant Gardener" it is not. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros for Pfizer:

Most of the guts of the book -- dirt and gossip about Pfizer, basically -- has been ditched in favor of a romantic comedy plotline involving Gyllenhall and Hathaway. So all the stuff about explaining away deaths of patients on Viagra, and pizza-and-dash sessions with doctors on Pfizer's dime probably won't show up on screen.

The film is R-rated, which will cut down its audience and thus the number of people associating the company with the movie.

It's not getting good pre-release buzz:

Everything about the trailer looks as straight-to-video generic as that bland title, so it's odd that this is one of the more anticipated autumn releases.

Cons for Pfizer:

The brand name Viagra is all over the movie and the premise -- that drug sales slick and sleezy -- is yet another ding on the company's corporate image.

The movie begins with Gyllenhaal persuading a doctor to let him wear a white coat and pretend to be an "intern" while he treats Hathaway as a patient. He persuades her to take her top off during the exam. This didn't occur in the book to my knowledge, but pharmaceutical sales reps have disguised themselves as doctors to sell drugs in the past.

The movie's release will also give further exposure to Reidy, who has a tendency to say things like this in interviews:

Reidy says friends used to ask him for free Viagra, to use for recreational purposes. But the author recalls: "I just annoyed my friends to no end, because I wouldn't give out Viagra samples. I thought, 'You know what, with my luck, one of you guys is going to drop dead of a heart attack, and not only am I going to jail, I'm going to have to explain to your mom why you died. I just don't want to have that conversation."

The movie may generate new interest in Hard Sell.

For the record, Pfizer says, "Pfizer is aware that a film is in development. We were not involved in any way in the making of the movie."

Related: