History of the Pharmaguy Pioneer Hawaiian Shirt

The yellow and black Hawaiian shirt is the symbol of the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award, better known as the “Pharmaguy Pioneer Award” for short.

What began as an outlandish ploy to grab attention has gradually become one of the most iconic and recognizable trophies in digital pharmaceutical marketing.

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would hold a public hearing regarding regulation of pharma's use of the Internet and social media in November, 2009 (here), Pharmaguy started appearing at conferences in the iconic shirt, which was left over from a Hunter S. Thompson Halloween costume (here).

Left: Pharmaguy as Hunter S. Thompson at a 2009 Halloween party.
Right: Pharmaguy at the 3rd Annual Digital Pharma East "un" conference
(there is some controversy regarding the sequence of these events)

That Halloween season was a scary time and attendees of the 3rd Annual Digital Pharma East "un" conferences anticipated much "fear in loathing" in Washington, DC at the upcoming FDA hearing!

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