The trend: AbbVie is tapping into popular culture with an unbranded connected TV (CTV) ad series for its chronic migraine campaign on the medical drama “The Pitt,” as its marketing team discussed at the recent Publicis Health Media HealthFront event.

Digging into the details: AbbVie’s “The Shift” ad series aired during season two of the HBO Max show, aiming to refresh its migraine brand Botox in a crowded category using real-life storytelling to build renewed awareness and trust among patients. The sponsorship ads air before the show with a message that the rest of the episode will be ad-free. The campaign features real healthcare providers who experience migraines, showing them at work in hospitals under stressful situations and mirroring the documentary-style narrative of “The Pitt.”

Why it matters: The Publicis pitch for “The Shift” campaign came as AbbVie was considering more unbranded campaigns amid federal agency concerns about pharma brand TV ads, said Jason Carter, associate marketing director for Botox Migraine at AbbVie.

Pharma companies are feeling pressure to develop more unbranded campaigns amid tighter scrutiny of product ads, according to a March ZS Associates report. For context, President Trump asked HHS and the FDA to crackdown on D2C pharma ads on TV and online channels like social media in September, followed by enforcement letters to pharma companies mostly related to brand-name drug ads on TV.

CTV is a better fit than linear TV for unbranded story-driven content, combining TV’s immersive viewing experience with precise targeting. For AbbVie, short film-style ads about nurses with migraines align with “The Pitt’s” narrative, making them feel more like part of the viewing experience than a product promotion.

Implications for pharma companies: Pharma’s shift to CTV is creating new opportunities to pair scale with more contextual, narrative-driven ad formats. We forecast linear TV spending will drop to $4.84 billion this year, a 13% decline YoY, while digital nonmobile spending, which includes CTV, will reach $11.09 billion, up 4.3%.