Warner-Lambert supporting Halls Zinc Defense lozenges with $5 mil. ad spending.

WARNER-LAMBERT SUPPORTING HALLS ZINC DEFENSE LAUNCH WITH $5 MIL. dedicated advertising spending for the zinc acetate lozenges. Launching in Sept., Halls Zinc Defense in two flavors -- cherry and mint -- is "high in ionized zinc," "great tasting," "soothes throats," and "supports your natural resistance system," according to product packaging. The "cold season dietary supplement" brings the Halls name into the "neutraceuticals" category.

Warner-Lambert may advertise the product as tasting better than its competitors, most notably, Quigley's Cold-Eeze. Sales materials from the firm note that "a taste comparison shows that Halls Zinc Defense is a clear winner" over cherry-flavored Cold-Eeze in a "judgment screening" of 200 subjects held in Chicago, Tampa, Charlotte and Tulsa. Halls Zinc Defense Cherry received a higher consumer preference rating than Cold-Eeze Cherry in seven categories: overall, color, flavor, vapor, cooling, after-taste and sensation, the Warner-Lambert sales brochure states.

The $5 mil. budget is part of over $40 mil. in planned advertising and promotion spending for the Halls cough drop brand, featuring a free-standing insert slated for December and a sampling program targeted to physicians.

Zinc lozenges were found to shorten the duration of cold symptoms in a study published in July 1996 by Cleveland Clinic Foundation researchers ("The Tan Sheet" July 15, 1996, p. 19). Warner-Lambert's sales materials quote Information Resources, Inc. food, drug and mass market data showing sales for the zinc lozenge category climbing from approximately $3 mil. for the month of December 1996 to over $7 mil. in March, comprising 19% of the cough drops/lozenges category sales that month.

Warner-Lambert additionally is introducing Celestial Seasonings Echinacea and Siberian Ginseng Lozenges in berry and mint flavors in September. Suggested retail for an 18-count box is $3.99. The caffeine-free product "soothes your throat" and is "great tasting," the firm says. Warner-Lambert is licensing the name from the Colorado-based herbal tea company. The Celestial Seasonings Soothers throat drops line debuted in September 1994 ("The Tan Sheet" July 25, 1994, In Brief).

FDA has targeted zinc lozenge makers in recent "courtesy letters" sent to Rx Vitamins, Mason Vitamins and George Eby Research stating that structure/function claims to treat the common cold are drug claims ("The Tan Sheet" Aug. 25, p. 10). Several manufacturers of echinacea-containing cold and flu treatments also have received such letters from the agency for making claims that would render the product a drug.