In the summer of 2023, I interned as a copywriter at IPG Health.

IPG Health (Interpublic Group) encompasses a network of advertisment agencies within the United States and around the globe.

I interned remotely at the FCB Cure office in Parsippany, New Jersey. There, I was mentee to Paul Fischer, a group copy supervisor with a deadpan sense of humor and a lot to share about the world of advertising.

While I was interviewing for the position, Paul asked me, “Do you know anything about pharma copywriting?”

Candidly, I didn’t.

I had a basic handle on copywriting fundamentals, but little understanding of writing for Ozempic (“Oh-oh-oh, Ozempic!”) television spots and such—those ads where a sprightly middle-aged man is busting a move at the local discotheque while a disembodied narrator reads the most alarming lines over.

“Side effects may include nausea, headaches, explosive diarrhea, implosive diarrhea, loss of motor function, loss of limbs, loss of your entire Party of Five DVD collection…”

But it didn’t matter. I would soon learn the finer details of the trade.

At the time, Paul’s team was working on the Fasenra account, an injectable drug for treating moderate-to-severe eosinophilic asthma; I shadowed Paul as he wrote for an upcoming campaign.

He taught me the difference between patient-facing DTC messaging and messaging meant for healthcare professionals: the former cares more about benefits and quality-of-life claims, while the latter focuses on drug efficacy and clinical case studies.

“Sometimes you’re on a wild goose chase trying to make claims the brand wants you to make,” Paul told me. “Sometimes you have to go digging for this research, but sometimes someone will just dump a cache of clinical papers on you and expect you to make due.”

In either case, it’s useful to have a “Bible” of claims to denote which source backs which claim.

While I had some minor contributions on the Fasenra account (mostly just A/B testing on email subject lines) much of my time was spent on the Bold Beginners pitch competition.

The 2023 IPG Health Bold Beginners intern cohort—minus the remote workers.

The roughly one hundred interns employed at IPG Health for the summer were equally distributed into nine separate teams. Each team had it’s own account managers, strategists, copywriters, and art directors. Each team was also given its own mentors from across network.