Amid a rise in misinformation and pseudoscientific beliefs, a new corporate push from Bayer seeks to remind Americans of the power of actual science.
The “Science Delivers” campaign, which launched on Monday’s World Science Day, will reach people in multiple venues: It includes ads and a video that will run nationally, a website providing information and debunking common misconceptions about the scientific process, a “Declaration on Science” running in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and Politico, and mailbox installations where people can share their own scientific wins.
In the minute-long video, over a montage of a diverse range of people going about their daily lives, a voiceover lists the many ways in which science impacts those lives and “delivers real progress” in the U.S., by providing “hope to the diagnosed, clean water to our communities, energy to our neighborhoods,” as well as “harvests that feed our families, tools that help farmers grow more with less and new ways to protect our land for generations to come.”
“Science delivers more than solutions, it delivers breakthroughs—breakthroughs that heal, protect and connect us,” the clip concludes. “For every challenge, for every community, for every tomorrow, let’s keep asking, keep testing, keep discovering, so science can keep delivering.”
In that vein, people will be able to share how science has impacted their own lives by submitting digital postcards via the oversized “Science, Sealed, Delivered” mailboxes that will pop up at “select events and locations,” per Bayer, including last month’s convening of the World Food Prize Foundation in Iowa.
Testimonials can also be shared via the Science Delivers site, where the virtual postcards are displayed. So far, the gallery includes more than 130 entries, thanking science for everything from life-saving medicines to cell phones and GPS technology to the yeast that makes delicious bread possible.
The campaign’s declaration, meanwhile, doubles down on the push against misinformation. Titled “Don’t (Just) Trust the Science,” it describes how “real science” relies not on trust but on facts, analysis, peer review and debate to come up with its innovations.
“Misinformation about science can have devastating consequences,” the declaration notes, inviting “scientists, educators, media professionals, citizens and others” to join Bayer in fighting against it and lifting up actual science.
The letter also acknowledges that this type of corporate declaration may inspire suspicions of “an ulterior motive,” prompting Bayer to pledge to “work extra hard” to earn public trust and uphold its science-fueled mission of “Health for All, Hunger for None.”
“We must strive to be healthier, more sustainable, and focused on what innovation can bring to improve society,” the company writes. “We must celebrate science and continue every day to innovate. To find the next cure. To find the next breakthrough.”
The initiative is the latest in a long line of Big Pharma corporate campaigns celebrating the importance of science.
Just last week, Sanofi ramped up the rollout of its own science-focused corporate push: a global campaign highlighting patient and employee stories under the tagline “We chase the miracles of science so you can chase your dreams.”
Also touting their scientific innovations in recent years are AstraZeneca—with its longstanding “What science can do” theme—as well as AbbVie, Astellas and Pfizer, whose 2024 Super Bowl ad was titled “Here’s to Science” and which previously debuted a campaign amid the COVID-19 pandemic dubbed “Science Will Win.”