A Responsibility Dose (Argentina)
Fabogesic Flips the Script: Less Pills, More Sales
People are harmfully self-medicating worldwide and the pharmaceutical industry’s communication is at least partially responsible. In Argentina alone, 50% of people self-medicate. This leads to more than 60 deaths per day.
Fabogesic Ibuprofen’s strategy was powerful: communicating in a responsible manner encouraging people not to consume their medication for minor discomforts. A special packaging (The Anti Self-Medication Pack) offered alternative solutions to alleviate the most common discomfort before deciding to take a pill.
By googling symptoms consumers received messages that strongly discouraged self-medication, while offering to set up an online appointment with a health professional.
The campaign’s goal was to raise awareness on self-medication, and change people’s minds about pain: some aching is healthy if you’ve made an effort. That’s why we invited people to consider a number of alternatives to painkillers (e.g. ice, resting, stretching, etc.) at every touchpoint.
By discouraging unnecessary use, Fabogesic actually increased sales by 18.2% while the campaign was running.