Nurofen’s Fake Products Bring to Life the Dismissals Women Often Hear When Complaining of Pain

McCann London has launched the next phase of the See My Pain platform with the UK’s leading pain brand Nurofen, fronted by a campaign featuring a series of imitation medicine products bringing to life what women have heard when expressing their pain to family, friends and healthcare professionals (HCPs).

Nurofen’s research has highlighted the phenomenon in which pain in women is more poorly understood and more mistreated compared to pain in men due to systemic gaps and biases. This is often referred to as the Gender Pain Gap. Half of women surveyed (50%) reported feeling ignored or dismissed by their GP when it came to their pain, compared with just over a third (36%) of men.

The Gender Pain Gap is a critical issue which impacts the everyday lives of women. To launch the campaign, McCann London hosted an exclusive event in central London, in honour of International Women’s History Month, to raise further awareness of the stark reality of the Gender Pain Gap. At this event, McCann London directly distributed Nurofen’s Gender Pain Gap Index Report inside a range of imitation medicine products from pill bottles to plaster packs and head pads with labels describing the dismissals women often hear for their pain, such as “it’s all in your head”, or “maybe your stressed”. The imitation products will be featured across a range of advertising assets to draw attention to the issue.

Nuria Antoja, marketing director at Nurofen; Reckitt said: “The second phase of the See My Pain campaign cements the Nurofen commitment to help close the Gender Pain Gap.  By highlighting the excuses that women get thrown at them time and again to dismiss their pain we are shining a light on the problems women face when seeking treatment. Along with supporting these women through our awareness campaign we have committed to a number of short- and long-term commitments in research and training for pharmacists and pharmacy teams. We are immensely proud of our See My Pain platform and the work we will be doing together with MWG to continue to fight pain biases so that everyone regardless of age, gender or ethnicity can take control of their pain.”

The campaign encompasses a 90-second film giving a platform to the voices of six women regarding real healthcare issues including Endometriosis, Migraines, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Sciatica, Fibromyalgia and Osteoarthritis.

Additionally, McCann London and Nurofen are working with the Guardian on a media partnership to dive deeper into women’s pain stories. Over a three-month period, nine topics will be covered, from understanding what is normal for period pain to how to advocate for yourself.   This campaign is now live across OOH, TV, VOD, Digital and Audio. Media spend for this campaign was led by Zenith and Reckitt’s internal media team.

This campaign illustrates how McCann London and Nurofen are continuing to fight the fight in making women’s pain more visible and eradicating gender bias in healthcare, and is an example of their commitment to using creativity to challenge societal issues and in creating a meaningful role for brands in our world.

Ruth Boulter, creative director at McCann London, said: “Behind this campaign are thousands of conversations with the 1 in 6 women who experience severe pain every single day. We hope this campaign serves to be a platform for their lived experiences, acknowledgement for the times their pain has been dismissed, and as validation that they deserve help and support. Backed by the real business changes and far-reaching commitments being made by Reckitt, we believe we can affect the ingrained gender bias in healthcare and make women’s pain more visible in our world. Campaigns like this are only made possible through brave client partners supporting creativity as a means to drive meaningful change and through a collaborative community of agencies all working towards the same goal: to help close the Gender Pain Gap.”