NACDS TURNS UP THE VOLUME

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS)recently launched a major advertising campaign to drivehome the message that pharmacy is crucial to health carequality, affordability, and accessibility and should be valuedand used more completely.

Steven C. Anderson,IOM, CAE,president andchief executiveofficer at NACDS,unveiled the ads at the recent annual NACDS Regional ChainConference. The ads feature the tagline "Pharmacies: The faceof neighborhood healthcare." They support the theme withmessages about pharmacies and pharmacists, including convenience,accessibility, prevention of drug interactions, andcounseling patients to take their medications as prescribed.

The ads, which begin running this month, are a coordinatedadvertising and public relations plan that will target CapitolHill, the Executive Branch, the media, and opinion leaders"inside the Beltway" of Washington, DC. The ads will appear inlocal publications, in transit settings with high commuter visibility,on drive-time radio, and online.

"We are turning up the volume on this central message:Pharmacies are essential to health care," said Anderson duringthe conference. "I believe we are even better equipped, andbetter focused, to tell the true story of this industry, and to turnthis testament into results for your businesses, for the patientsand consumers you serve, and for the good of the nation."