• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, April 5, 2016

On April 5, GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Excedrin is launching a nationwide TV and digital campaign by DDB Remedy London and Weber Shandwick called “The Migraine Experience.”

It involves what Excedrin calls the “world’s first migraine simulator,” technology designed to foster empathy for the 36 million sufferers in the United States.

Augmented reality replicates the visual symptoms many migraine sufferers experience during an episode, including aura (pictured here), blurred vision, disorientation, and aversion to bright lights — minus the extreme pain that comes with a migraine.

In one :30 spot called “Couple/Specialist,” a young woman explains that her boyfriend thinks her migraines are just bad headaches. As she acknowledges that Excedrin “relieves my pain and symptoms,” she says the brand goes further to help her beau better understand what she goes through. 

Says a rep for the brand: “The content is anchored around the idea of using technology to drive human emotion — something that’s still quite new within the healthcare space.”

It features an array of real relationships — mother/daughter, friends, partners, co-workers — where one person is a sufferer and the other a non-sufferer and illustrates the emotional reactions of non-sufferers, once they realize what his/her friend, co-worker, partner goes through.

"We found that 88% of young sufferers feel misunderstood about their migraines, especially when it comes to their personal and professional relationships," he says. "Migraines can become somewhat of a 'third party' in relationships between sufferers and non-sufferers, so finding an array of relationships with this dynamic was an important part of bringing the creative, and mission, to life – in order to foster more empathy for migraine sufferers."

The spots will be aired on national television, along with a multichannel paid media spend across digital and social platforms. The long-form video will live on Excedrin.com, where viewers can learn more about the relationships in the spots and their experience with the technology.