Picture the scene. A new brief lands on your desk from Reckitt, one of your biggest clients. Durex? Clearasil? Cillit Bang? Forget it, your challenge is to devise the first TV campaign for laxative brand Fybogel.
Perhaps not the easiest task, but it doesn’t appear to have caused too much of a “creative blockage” at Havas London, whose new strategy is based around the fact that while constipation can hit you hard – literally – a glass of Fybogel can soon “let it all out”.
Introducing the new tagline “Find Your Groove”, the ad follows a fifty-something woman as she goes about her constipation-free life, with the help of a daily dose of jollop.
To be fair, we have no idea what’s in it but she appears a woman on a mission as she takes an early morning yoga session, walks the dog, goes for a swim, then a run, plays video games, has a bike ride, watches a firework display, goes ten-pin bowling with the kids, cooks dinner, takes salsa lessons and finally ends up in a bar with friends quaffing some fizz.
We might have to start taking it ourselves, even though we aren’t at all bunged up…
Spanning TV, print, digital and out-of-home, the activity launches this week on TV and in the press, with the campaign running until October.
Reckitt senior brand manager Ivona Dimitrova seems chuffed with the outcome: “Constipation shouldn’t – and needn’t – stop you in your tracks. Fybogel uses the natural power of fibre to help restore and maintain regular digestive health, enabling a life that keeps moving – and this campaign brings that regularity and routine to life beautifully through rhythm.”
Meanwhile, Havas London creative director Dave Mygind is also contented: “This category likes to focus on the debilitating effects of constipation – yet sufferers need scant reminding of how that feels. I’m really proud that we created a campaign for constipation that doesn’t feel like a campaign for constipation. It feels fun and playful, and the line ‘Find Your Groove’ perfectly sums up Fybogel’s purpose in people’s lives.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Let’s be fair, for every glitzy car ad there’s half a dozen promoting products to ease your “Farmer Giles”, vaginal itching, old man’s droop and incontinence. These are the bread and butter brands that need creative solutions and this ad does feel like it has had the Havas London “treatment” of being positive and slightly quirky.
Our only issue is with the irritating alarm clock sound that runs throughout the ad; other than that, as they say, it’s all good to go.
Decision Marketing Adometer: A “have you been, Walter?” 8½ out of 10
