JWT New York launched a new online spot in its “How We Family” campaign for Tylenol, which it launched in June for Pride Month.
The two-minute spot focuses on the Thompsons Family, a “wife and wife team” of wedding photographers raising two boys in upstate New York who tell their story. After one of them got diagnosed with cancer, the couple was forced to reevaluate their life and the ordeal reinforced their focus on family. The spot intersperses footage of the family enjoying time outdoors in the Catskills and in their home with the couple narrating their story. “Family is not what it used to be…but the essence of family and the bonds of the family and what composes a family is all still the same and just as strong as it ever was,” the couple says at the conclusion of the spot, a nice summation of the “How We Family” campaign philosophy, even if the spot doesn’t make its point as concisely as previous efforts.
As with its predecessor, how you view the effort will partially depend on whether or not you feel Tylenol is blatantly pandering and exploiting gay pride for its own gain. JWT does attempt to avoid such accusations by keeping branding largely out of the picture, with the Tylenol logo not making an appearance until the conclusion of the spot, a move which make cause others to question how effectively it advertises the product.