Author: Mike

The Associated Press is reporting that Michael Vale, the actor behind the Dunkin Donuts Fred the Baker character of “time to make the doughnuts” fame, has died at the age of 83. Vale’s character was an American icon up there with the likes of Clara Peller and her “Where’s the beef?” character.

Not to take away from the loss Vale’s family and friends are experiencing, but I hope the powers-that-be at Dunkin Donuts see this as an opportunity to pay respect to the man that single-handedly made the Dunkin Donuts brand an enduring household name.

Imagine, if you will, a television spot during primetime. The spot opens with white text on a black background: “Michael Vale: 1922-2005.” The screen then fades into a quick retrospective of him repeating his famous “Time to make the doughnuts” line. The spot ends with the Dunkin Donuts logo underneath text on a white background: “We will continue to make the doughnuts for you, Michael.” The company could also offer a special, free Michael Vale donut to customers every year on his birthday in memoriam, as well as release his commercials from the archives onto the web to keep his work alive.

I, for one, plan to pick up a doughnut at Dunkin Donuts tomorrow in memory of Michael Vale. I hope Dunkin Donuts encourages everyone else to do the same.

Not sure why I saw this on The Consumerist, but the topic is ripe for front page news. It seems the federal chief of AIDS research is on record saying that any HIV vaccine will not be made by a pharmaceutical company because there’s no financial incentive for them to develop such a drug. OK, fair point. The last I checked, Pfizer, Sandoz, Merck and the others were in business to make profit (remember that capitalism thing we learned about back in school?). That is what they do. And, given the sorry reality of lobbying and influence peddling that has unfortunately become the norm in the pharma industry, we might as well throw the FDA into the for-profit discussion.

However, I think the FDA, universities and Gates Foundations of the world have an opportunity to change the way drugs with no commercial profit potential are developed: Follow the open source model that has shaken the technology industry at its core.

Think about it. The open source movement in the technology industry was fueled by a passion to put power back in the users’ hands. It was built on a belief that communities of developers could re-design, re-build and repair software based on the needs of the community, not the financial needs of a single company. It changed the way companies looked at their information technology infrastructures.

I was at a client seminar a couple of weeks ago and heard a speaker — the chief information architect for a non-profit health organization — say emphatically that they would not be able to do as much as they are currently able if they had to rely solely on commercial software. The funding just wouldn’t allow it. So he mixed some open source technology into his infrastructure to plug the funding gaps.

The federal chief of AIDS research’s comments highlight the funding gaps society today has in the world of medicine. The system — as philanthropic as we want it to be — is a system based on profit, not philanthropy. A smart pharmaceutical company that understands that corporate reputation and societal contributions are as important to the bottom line as selling billions of pills each quarter will understand the opportunity. That company will establish a global research and development infrastructure for drugs and vaccines modeled after the innovation eminating from the open source community in Silicon Valley. They will call on world leaders — people like President Clinton, President Carter, Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono and others — to lead this community-based movement. They will use their immense lobbying power to enlist the FDA to create a dedicated safety review board for community-based pharmaceuticals.

Is there a pharmaceutical company that has the corporate guts to take this on? Use the comments section to let me know your thoughts.

After much time away from the old blogosphere, we’re planning to usher in 2006 with a new and revamped Maney|Digital outpost on the web. Expect a random mix of observations, updates and links to things we find interesting or amusing. Enjoy!