Last week, it was announced that John Kamp would be inducted into the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame as “the industry’s Constitutional champion.”
In the press release announcing the induction, some of Mr. Kamp’s contributions over the last three decades to the healthcare industry are highlighted. For example, in discussing his tenures at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Coalition For Healthcare Communication, the release notes that “Kamp confronted a landscape that was downright hostile to pharma as often as not. For years, there have been rumblings that Congress would limit or eliminate the tax-deductibility of pharma marketing expenses, while still allowing Budweiser or Apple or anyone else in any other category to maintain the write-off. Kamp pushed back against this through education, keeping his voice low and steady in an era when diatribes generated the most headlines.”
The release discussed his work at the Federal Communications Commission, noting that “[d]uring his ten years at the agency, he worked on a host of issues around deregulation and media, among them the breakup of AT&T.” It was his work at the 4As, however, where Kamp found his true calling. “Defending the advertising industry really worked for me, because a lot of it was about the First Amendment,” he says.
It was the DTC pharma ads on television where Kamp really caught momentum in advocating on the industry’s behalf. His experience in advocating on behalf of industry led to the creation of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication. “It started, in no small part, because a lot of the [pharma] companies were ratting on each other to the FDA,” Kamp says. “You’re complaining about the other guy’s marketing? To the FDA? That didn’t seem productive.” The release notes that “[w]hen a handful of agency execs approached the 4As about creating a single organization to voice industry concerns and defend it, Kamp was enlisted as one of the Coalition’s first leaders. He unified messaging and persuaded reluctant allies for nearly two decades, right up until his retirement from the group in 2018.”
“John helped us find a way to effectively get people in government to understand the societal value of healthcare communications,” says Publicis Communications COO and former Publicis Health CEO Nick Colucci. “He helped teach us how important it was to engage with government and regulatory officials.”
Congratulations to John Kamp on this honor!