Back on shelves and TV after three years with Canadian-made campaign
After a three-year hiatus, Rolaids can once again be found in retail stores across the country. Sanofi Canada is re-introducing the antacid following the company’s acquisition of the brand last year, supported by a national campaign called “Don’t Let Heartburn Get in the Way.”
Following a string of recalls, the antacid had been unavailable in Canada until this week. While the brand had historically adapted its U.S. ads for the Canadian market, Sanofi approached LG2 – also the agency of record for its Gold Bond, IcyHot and Selsun Blue brands – to develop a Canadian campaign for the relaunch.
The new campaign includes two TV spots – “Dinner” and “Plumber” – running on specialty and conventional channels across the country, along with in-store promotion and a small digital buy. A social media campaign is set to launch in April.
The ads illustrate the idea that heartburn is so distracting, it blocks everything else out, but once you pop a Rolaids, things once again become clear.
According to Dave Legendre, account director at LG2, the agency wanted to move away from traditional antacid advertising depicting heartburn as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle.
“When we look at some of the competitors in this category, they’re very much into the over-indulgence, junk food, over-the-top humour. We tried to be a bit more straight-to-the-point and avoid that over-indulgence message. That’s not really what Rolaids is about.
“We’re really trying to define a different path for us and talk about advocacy and the fact that you can get relief effectively and fast,” Legendre said.
The agency is also employing experiential marketing with the help of the Toronto-based agency Smak. Samples of Rolaids will be handed out to baseballs fans attending an upcoming Blue Jay’s game at Montréal’s Olympic stadium.
Touché is handling the media buy for “Don’t let heartburn get in the way.” The campaign launched last week and will run until the end of the year.
