It's not totally out of the ordinary that Walgreens would make public its issues with Express Scripts after it failed to reach agreement on a new contract with the pharmacy benefits manager.
What's unusual is that not only did Walgreens attempt to win the public relations war, but that it paid Twitter to give it preferential placement including listing #ILoveWalgreens as one of the most popular trending topics on the social media site.
As one @JaredKaltwasser put it, per Advertising Age: "Is it just me, or is the trending topic #ILoveWalgreens basically worthless if the company bought placement on the trends list?"
Walgreens, according to Ad Age, also used Social Spark, a site that connects bloggers to sponsors looking to pay for supportive posts. Most of the bloggers who posted pro-Walgreens content included a disclaimer: "This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine."
Express Scripts did not sit idly by in response to the Walgreens-sponsored bashing. The company went on Twitter to publish a list of six "facts" including:
- "Walgreens' proposed rates/terms would make them the most expensive pharmacy in our network."
- "With over 56,000 pharmacies in our network, there is plenty of access."