• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

For football fans, the meaning of “TD” is clear: a touchdown.

So, to raise awareness of “The Other TD” -- a neurological illness called Tardive Dyskinesia -- Teva Pharmaceuticals has launched a campaign of that name that includes a partnership with NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Davis. Not only are Davis’ initials “TD,” but he’s credited with starting the Denver Broncos’ “Mile-High Salute,” tradition due to his dance celebrations after numerous touchdowns for the team.

In fact, TV spots for “The Other TD” and a video highlighting a dedicated campaign website that shows people conducting Davis-like touchdown celebrations.

“You probably know these TD moves,” the spots say, “but guess what. There’s another TD. It causes uncontrollable movements.” They then identify some of those movements, which include constant blinking, fingertapping, mouth and tongue movements, ankle rolling, and hand and arm twitching. 

Besides his TD dance, Teva was drawn to Davis by another attribute:  his advocacy for mental health causes, says Heather DeMyers, the firm’s vice president of U.S. innovative medicines marketing. That’s becaus. TD, while not itself a mental health disease, occurs only as an outgrowth of taking mental health medications, particularly anti-psychotic drugs, she tells Marketing Daily.

Teva, which separately markets a TD drug called Austedo as well as meds for schizophrenia, migraine and other neurological conditions,  has done lots of educational and awareness work for TD in the past, DeMyers says -- but the needle hadn't moved much concerning the number of people being diagnosed and treated, leading to the launch of “The Other TD” as Teva’s largest awareness/educational play yet.

The U.S. TD population is estimated at 785,000, but only 15% of them get diagnosed, she says, hence the need for the campaign.

“We want to really help undiagnosed people with TD recognize the symptoms and take action,” DeMyers says, “Given the external environment and that mental health is very important to a lot of Americans right now, we decided to take it to the next level (with) something that would have a little bit more stopping power and maybe, with football, be a better connection this time of year,

Davis doesn't appear in “The Other TD” TV spots, which are running on linear broadcast, connected TV and online video, but will be involved in the Teva campaign via sports influencer videos, his own social posts and media interviews, DeMyers says.

Teva’s target audience is potential TD patients in general, she relates, as well as caregivers and healthcare professionals. She adds, though, that fewer males get diagnosed or treated, so the football connection could help in that regard. Teva also reports that Blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic groups have lower diagnosis rates.

The website for “The Other TD” includes an option to “discover a treatment for TD.” If clicked, it takes users to an Austedo site.

That drug, around since 2017, has been running consumer ads since at least 2021, including this recent spot that also features the brand’s catchy jingle.