• by Amy Corr  @MediaPostOTL, June 11, 2021

Pain relief brand Aspercreme has launched a campaign that introduces a new tagline: “Kick Pain in the Aspercreme.”

“Aspercreme’s previous tagline: 'Love Hurts. Aspercreme Works,’ was effective for a while, but with the category heating up, the brand needed a radical repositioning,” said Sandy Greenberg, co-founder, Terri & Sandy, the brand’s ad  agency. “Aspercreme is one of the original topical pain relievers—it’s a 100-year-old brand. And with newer players entering the market, we knew we needed to create a bit of a head-snap to get consumers saying: ‘That’s Aspercreme?’”

Sword-wielding women duke it out in one ad; when one must stop due to arthritic pain, her opponent hands her Aspercreme so she can best her enemy fair and square. “Warriors” marks the introduction of Aspercreme Arthritis, a new product for the brand. 

“Spies” looks like an action movie with two men fighting in the rain under poor lighting. When back pain stops one man in his tracks, the other renders aid, temporarily, via Aspercreme with Lidocaine.

Both ads were shot in Bulgaria by commercial and film director Nalle Sjoblad. 

This is the first work from Terri & Sandy since the agency won the account last year, along with Icy Hot and ACT, two other Sanofi Consumer Healthcare brands.

“Kick Pain in the Aspercreme” was the agency's pitch-winning idea.

“The concept for the campaign originated from the insight that pain sufferers want to fight back,” said Greenberg. “At the beginning of the pitch, our managing director, Tony Scopellito, threw out the line: 'Kick Pain in the Aspercreme,’ and immediately we knew we nailed it. It was feisty, funny and sure to shake up the category.”