Preparation H Finds Comfort in the Uncomfortable with Campaign from Elmwood

Leading haemorrhoid treatment brand, Preparation H, has unveiled a fresh visual brand expression that plays on humour in order to challenge the taboos associated with butt health and appeal to all consumers.

Preparation H, part of GSK Consumer Healthcare, has been available since the 1920s and, today, is America’s number one brand for haemorrhoid treatment. In recent years, new challengers and direct-to-consumer brands have emerged in the haemorrhoid space, and have brought with them fresh and modern visual identities.

Preparation H wanted to ensure that it could maintain its market-leading position and appeal to all consumers. Global design consultancy, Elmwood, was picked to develop a new brand expression that would help future-proof the brand. 

Elmwood’s unique approach to branding involves tapping into consumer tensions to create meaningful and memorable brand ideas. From the start, the tension facing Preparation H was clear. Most people will experience haemorrhoids at some point, but there’s a shame attached to talking about it openly. Elmwood saw an opportunity to tackle the taboo head-on by leveraging humour to create a more relatable brand expression.

To capture this, Elmwood created a series of funny and shareable illustrations, animations and images that would form the basis for Preparation H’s wider brand comms.

The copy is packed with colloquialisms (rather than using cold medical language, it plays with words like ‘keister’, ‘rump’ and ‘derriere’) and uses witty captions such as, “Your butt is behind you no matter what”. This sense of playful confidence is also encapsulated with a quirky and retro typeface.

The new brand expression will be unveiled on Preparation H’s social media channels and on a microsite, built by ad agency Grey Group and featuring Elmwood’s content, that will allow customers to create personalised Valentine’s Day cards for their loved ones, www.fromyourbum.com. 

Krista Oraa, Elmwood’s Creative Director said: “Preparation H has a unique place in the market. We knew there was an opportunity to enhance this by creating a brand expression that is built on humour to challenge the stigma associated with this area of health. With the new assets we created, Preparation H now has a reinvigorated brand that builds awareness across a broader demographic and signals change to the consumer.”