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June 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Creative

Benadryl itching to get inside medicine cabinets

by Annette Bourdeau
page 27

A jaunty new commercial from Benadryl features a jib-jab animated man taking a leisurely stroll, only to be hit by unexpected skin allergies. Luckily, he has some Benadryl on him, so he's fine.

The spot ends with a shot of Benadryl in a medicine cabinet, with the new tag: "Remember the 'Dryl."

"The major goal is to get Benadryl [itch-stopping gels and creams] into the medicine cabinets of all Canadians in case of unexpected skin allergies," says Ted Lachmansingh, group brand director, upper respiratory, at Guelph, Ont.-based McNeil Consumer Healthcare (a division of Montreal-based Johnson & Johnson Canada). "We were looking for a unique position for the brand that could expand usage."

Agency JWT suggested the brand use jib-jab animation - something very different for the pharma category - to break through and get noticed.

"This brand is well over 50 years old, and we've never done a lot of support on it in Canada," says Lachmansingh. "The challenge is that it's a brand people think they already know. So we had to grab their attention, pull them in and help them understand that there is something different."

If the TV spot performs well, Lachmansingh says they'll consider doing a bigger campaign to support this new strategy.

client: John Mahony, marketing director OTC Canada; Ted Lachmansingh, group brand director, upper respiratory; Maria Gregory, senior brand manager; Nathaniel Barnes, brand manager, McNeil Consumer Healthcare

agency: JWT Toronto

EVP/ECD: Martin Shewchuk

group creative head: Colin Winn

senior AD: Jeff Wilbee

account team: Monique Zarry, Jodi Bishop-Short, Amanda Peticca-Harris

agency producer: Gavin Nevsky

animation house: Soho Post & Graphics

animation: Mark Palowich, Denny Kurien, Bob Zagorskis

Flame artist: Andy Hunter

post production: Stefani Kouvrianos

photographer: Don Dixon

music: Grayson Matthews

You are cordially invited to submit your new, dead clever and previously unrevealed campaigns to: editorial director Mary Maddever at mmaddever@brunico.com and CD Stephen Stanley at sstanley@brunico.com, co-curators of strategy's Creative space.

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