MAHF names 2020 inductees

 

The membership of the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame (MAHF) has elected the organization’s 2020 inductees: Thomas Harrison, co-founder of Harrison and Star, and Lawrence J. Lesser, co-founder of Medicus Communications and ApotheCom Associates. John Kamp, founder of the Coalition for Healthcare Communications, has been named the 2020 recipient of the Service to Industry Award. The inductees will be honored on February 6, 2020, at a black-tie dinner at The Pierre Hotel in New York City.

Harrison began his career at Pfizer as a sales rep where he quickly rose through the ranks and transitioned to the marketing side of the business. He then moved to the agency side joining Rolf Werner Rosenthal. After a short stint, RWR was bought out by Ogilvy and Harrison decided to strike out on his own. In 1987, he and partner Larry Star opened Harrison and Star. Early project work for Lederle and Sandoz lead to their big break of winning Azactam (parenteral antibiotic) by ER Squibb & Sons (now BMS). Harrison and Star quickly became one of the fastest-growing ad agencies in the industry. From there, Harrison moved on to DAS, serving as president, then he became chairman and CEO. He was instrumental in the acquisition of more than 220 agencies using Harrison and Star as the blueprint for standardizing the acquisition criteria resulting in a group of agencies with over $5 billion in annual revenue.

Lesser started his advertising career in 1959 as an assistant account executive at Friend Reiss Advertising. He then got a job in 1963 as traffic manager with the LW Frohlich Intercon Agency where he moved through a number of levels in client service to the position of vice president to a member of the executive committee. Following the breakup of Frohlich Agency, Lesser and William Castagnoli partnered with V. Edward Dent to start Medicus Communications in 1972. Medicus became an early player in consumer advertising. They were the first to promote a consumer product, Crest, to medical professionals. Medicus was also responsible for one of the very first national DTC television ad campaigns for Seldane. After retiring from Medicus in 1997, Lesser became a consultant and eventually founded ApotheCom Associates LLC with Neil Matheson in 1999. ApotheCom became the largest privately owned medical communications agency in the United States. As Matheson and Lesser created additional agencies, they established the holding company AXIS Healthcare Communications LLC in 2001 where Lesser served as chairman until 2007. He continued consulting in the industry before passing away in 2017.

Kamp has been a longtime champion of the medical advertising and communications industry, advocating for the First Amendment right to communicate accurate and non-misleading information about new developments in diagnosis and therapy. Kamp began his career as director of Congressional and public affairs at the Federal Communications Commission, serving from June 1980 to October 1989, helping to make FCC policy and representing the agency to the public and lawmakers. He then moved to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) Washington office as senior VP from 1990 to 2000. In 1991, early in Kamp’s tenure at the 4As, he was one of the group of advertising industry leaders who founded the Coalition for Healthcare Communication. Kamp left the 4As to join the Washington law firm Wiley Rein LLP. In 2002, he became executive director of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, while continuing as part-time consulting counsel at Wiley Rein. He retired from Wiley Rein in 2017 and retired as executive director of the Coalition in 2018.

The MAHF was founded during 1996 with a mission to preserve the history and heritage of the medical advertising profession and honor those who founded and built the industry through their induction into a Hall of Fame. The Medical Advertising Hall of Fame is currently pursuing more educational programs as well as expansion to cover digital communications.