• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Last year, in her acclaimed documentary debut, “My Mom Jayne,” Mariska Hargitay looked at the life of her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car accident nearly 60 years ago

Now, in an awareness campaign for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), she’s focusing on her father, actor-bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, who died of multiple myeloma cancer 20 years ago. 

Referring to Hargitay’s star turn as an investigative detective on NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” for a record-shattering 27 years, BMS’ new campaign is titled “Investigating Myeloma.”

“I am an actor and director and producer and an advocate, but I think the role that defines me the most is being my father’s daughter,” Hargitay says in a three-minute hero video, calling him “my mentor and my north star," while recalling his myeloma as a “horrible, devastating and painful disease.”

But, she adds, “a lot has changed in the past 20 years… and I’m heartened by the medical advances in this space.” Referring to BMS’ current CELMoD research by name, she says she’s hoping to “help educate on multiple myeloma and inspire other people that are impacted by this disease to not give up.”

BMS says this is the first time Hargitay has opened up about her experience with her dad’s multiple myeloma battle, a development the star has in common with Monica Shaw, the pharma firm’s vice president of global oncology commercialization, who lost own father to the disease a decade ago.

“Our fathers were both very big figures in our lives,” Shaw, who appears alongside Hargitay in conversation in some campaign content, told Marketing Daily. “Being able to share that and how we could talk to other families going through the same thing was very meaningful.”

Shaw added: “We wanted somebody who could have a personal connection to this campaign,” citing a “natural partnership” in that Hargitay “was very passionate about raising awareness of myeloma and the new research.”

Multiple myeloma is the second most prevalent form of blood cancer, behind only leukemia, Shaw said, with some 36,000 U.S. cases diagnosed annually in the U.S.

And multiple myeloma may be underrepresented in consumer awareness compared to other blood cancers like leukemia, Shaw acknowledged, “so ensuring that people know this is something other people have dealt with -- and bringing the CELMod research to life for them -- is extremely important."

CELMoD, Shaw explained, “is a way of us looking how to stimulate the immune system to enhance killing of multiple myeloma cancer cells.” But, since “Investigating Myeloma” is an awareness campaign, she couldn’t discuss what BMS has in its pipeline as a result of the research.

In a March press release, though, BMS reported positive phase 3 trial results for one drug called Mezigdomide.

For BMS, a drug coming out of its CELMoD research would represent a major leap in multiple myelomia treatment on top of a number of FDA-approved treatments introduced in the past couple of decades, such as Revlimid, Pomalyst, Abecma and Emplicit. 

“Myeloma is still an incurable disease,” Shaw noted, “so areas like the CELMod research…really allows us to educate the community on this important ongoing research -- and hopefully inspire hope for the future.”

The “Investigating Myeloma” campaign includes a dedicated website, paid ads and organic posts on Meta platforms, and media interviews by Hargitay. 

“We are publishing original social-first videos across platforms, following the same look and feel and theme as our hero content,” a BMS spokesperson told Marketing Daily, “with the aim to differentiate social media content from website content and provide multiple perspectives on Mariska's story.”

Two Burson Group entities -- Burson and GCI Health -- have worked on the campaign.