Pharma companies are pivoting their television ads from information on their prescription drugs to information about COVID-19 and thanking front-line workers. Some are offering financial assistance on prescriptions to consumers who may be struggling due to job loss.

A short film shows a future where a terminal diagnosis is delivered from a machine to illustrate what could happen if health care innovation replaces human providers. The film was created by health care agency The Bloc in collaboration with Brazilian filmmaking collective The Youth.

An analysis of data from Medicare, the CDC and local health agencies found 79.5% of 3,142 US counties lacked an infectious disease doctor, and 9.9% had an infectious disease physician density lower than the national average. The findings, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, showed 66% of 785 counties with the highest number of COVID-19 cases didn't have a single infectious disease physician.

Marketers who want to tap increasing consumer mobile use over desktop can boost their odds for success by using video content with a focus on vertical videos and newer platforms such as TikTok, writes Thomas Griffin. He also suggests using KPIs and other analytics to gauge results, creating personalized experiences and optimizing content for voice search with results that are short and conversational.

Facebook took a unique approach to training artificial intelligence chatbots with the unveiling this week of its Situated Interactive MultiModal Conversations. "Facebook would appear to be working toward an assistant capable of processing data on a user and the assistant co-observe, and then outputting replies beyond just plain text based on this data," writes Kyle Wiggers, as he takes a deep dive into what's behind the platform's SIMMC.

Instagram branded content ads can amplify reach and engagement while providing ad transparency to Instagram users for brand recognition, Himanshu Rauthan writes. He details four steps to set up an Instagram branded content ad campaign, including how to manage influencer partnership requests and picking posts to promote.

Association of National Advertisers CEO and President Bob Liodice chats in this podcast about the effect of the pandemic on the ANA and advertising, and the current state of play. "We're finding that trusted brands are of great value to consumers right now," he says, adding that marketing messaging "is still consumer empathetic but transitioning to more of the product benefits that we're used to."

According to Harris Poll surveys conducted between March 14 and May 17, 33% to 40% of respondents reported that they had a more positive view of the pharmaceuticals industry since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The speed, agility, and scale at which biopharma is moving to develop therapies and vaccines for COVID-19 is unprecedented," noted Coalition for Healthcare Communication Executive Director Jon Bigelow. "While the purpose and importance of this full-court press is the need to address the pandemic, a happy side benefit is in beginning to reframe the discussion about the value of pharma research, commercialization and communication," he said. Read more.