I have chronicled the career of Kevin Nalty (aka “Nalts”) for a number of years (see , for example, “Nalts Talks About His Days at J&J, His ADHD, and His Merck Performance Review“).
In 2009, he famously “quit” his position at Merck to become a YouTube comedy star on the basis of the popularity of his fart videos (see “Was Nalty’s Fart Video the Straw that Broke Merck’s Back or was it Some Other Video?“). He now is back in the pharma fold as Consumer Product Director, Psychiatry Consumer Marketing, at Janssen, a division of Johnson and Johnson.
According to his LinkedIn profile:
“Kevin Nalts is the only career marketer who doubles as one of YouTube’s most-viewed entertainers. He is formerly an innovation leader at Johnson & Johnson, and product director at Merck. Author of ‘Beyond Viral’ (Wiley & Sons), Nalty helps companies and causes engage customers in the most visceral form of social media: online video.”
It’s interesting that Nalty is now able to be open about his “Nalts” YouTube alter ego while employed at a major pharmaceutical company. Since “Nalts” suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), he is probably involved in the marketing of CONCERTA, Janssen’s drug for the treatment of ADHD in adults and children. Will Nalty be able to bring some humor into the ADHD field as in his “ADHD Boy” video shown below? Time will tell.
NOTE: The ADHD Boy video includes Adword links to advertising sponsors, one of which is CONCERTA! See if you too can spot the ad, which looks like this:
The add link, www.focusonadhd.com, goes directly to the CONCERTA site (www.concerta.net NOT www.concerta.com).
NOTE: See comments to this post by “Nalts,” who explains he is NOT involved in the marketing of CONCERTA. In fact, he claims his ADHD was probably a “misdiagnosis.” In any case, he shut down the ads for ADHD Boy to avoid any semblance of conflict of interest. Also, in the opening graphic, the phrase “Not taking drugs is like not drinking water when you are thirsty” is a direct quote from one of Nalts’ tongue-in-cheek videos, which may or may not still be available on YouTube. In other words, it’s just another “Naltyism” that should not be taken seriously — much like marketing 🙂
Now that Nalty is once again a pharmaceutical company employee, I have added his @Nalts Twitter account to my list of Pharma Twitter Pioneers (see here). Because of his “Farting in Public” YouTube video (here), which to date has garnered close to 13 million views, @Nalts has over 13,000 Twitter followers. This eclipses the number of followers of @Alex__Butler, another Janssen (UK) marketer!
