17120: Considering Inequities In Healthcare Marketing.

 

Advertising Age reported consumer health giant Haleon is launching a global creative review to likely award its business to a White holding company.

 

IPG, WPP, and Publicis Groupe currently serve the client, underscoring the obscenity of worldwide pitches.

 

After all, IPG may soon be gone and WPP should be gone, possibly narrowing the exclusive field of competition.

 

Additionally, a global review means holding companies have the advantage and may be viewed as the only options for a client like Haleon. In short, non-White agencies will be eliminated from consideration—or relegated to subservient “partner” status and ultimately experience Prime Redlining.

 

The healthcare industry has always presented disparities and inequities to people of color. Looks like ditto for healthcare marketing and agencies of color.

 

Haleon launches global creative agency review

 

By Ewan Larkin

 

Haleon, the consumer health giant spun out of GSK, is looking to streamline its agency roster, Ad Age has learned.

 

The maker of Panadol tablets, Sensodyne toothpaste and Centrum vitamins has launched a global creative agency review aimed at consolidating work currently primarily spread across three advertising holding companies.

 

Interpublic Group of Cos., WPP and Publicis Groupe currently work with the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. The pitch is said to be handled by R3. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the incumbents are pitching for the business; none of them immediately provided comment. R3 couldn’t be reached for comment.

 

Haleon declined to comment.

 

IPG and WPP are currently pitching for another consumer health company, Bayer, in a review that encompasses global creative and media responsibilities. Bayer owns over-the-counter drugs such as Claritin, Aleve and Alka-Seltzer.

 

Haleon spent $1.2 billion on global media in 2024, according to estimates from COMvergence. The company had measured U.S. media spending of $492 million in 2024, up from $429 million in 2023, per MediaRadar.

 

Haleon has made other agency moves over the past year. In February 2024, the company hired Brandtech Group’s Collectively as its principal influencer marketing agency in the U.S. under a three-year deal. That marked an uncommon commitment in a space where year-to-year assignments are the norm.

 

Contributing: Bradley Johnson