Nurofen is seeking to address the gender pain gap with the rollout of the second phase of its ‘See My Pain’ creative platform, centred around a powerful 90-second spot.
Developed by London agency McCann, the film features the stories of six real women who have lived with chronic pain but have had their suffering repeatedly dismissed due to their gender.
Owing to systemic gaps and biases within the medical profession and wider society, half of women surveyed (50%) by the Reckitt-owned brand said that they had felt ignored or dismissed by their GP when it came to pain – with this figure standing at 36% for men.
To better communicate the campaign’s key message, McCann has created a suite of imitation products that bring to life the most common dismissals that women deal with when trying to express the pain they feel; such as “it’s all in your head”, or “maybe you’re stressed”.
Spearheaded by the hero film, the campaign will additionally be supported by executions across TV, video-on-demand, out-of-home, digital and audio.
Most importantly, the creative will highlight the very real harm that the gender pain gap can cause, often delaying or even denying proper treatment for women suffering from a range of conditions such as endometriosis, migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome, sciatica, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis.
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“The second phase of the See My Pain campaign cements the Nurofen commitment to help close the Gender Pain Gap. By highlighting the excuses that women get thrown at them time and again to dismiss their pain we are shining a light on the problems women face when seeking treatment,” Nurofen marketing director, Nuria Antoja said.
“Along with supporting these women through our awareness campaign we have committed to a number of short- and long-term commitments in research and training for pharmacists and pharmacy teams. We are immensely proud of our See My Pain platform and the work we will be doing together with MWG to continue to fight pain biases so that everyone regardless of age, gender or ethnicity can take control of their pain.”
With women more than twice as likely to experience chronic pain than men, Nurofen has also partnered with The Guardian to dive deeper into women’s pain stories, with a range of topics to be covered over a three-month period.
McCann London creative director, Ruth Boulter added: “Behind this campaign are thousands of conversations with the 1 in 6 women who experience severe pain every single day. We hope this campaign serves to be a platform for their lived experiences, acknowledgement for the times their pain has been dismissed, and as validation that they deserve help and support.
“Backed by the real business changes and far-reaching commitments being made by Reckitt, we believe we can affect the ingrained gender bias in healthcare and make women’s pain more visible in our world. Campaigns like this are only made possible through brave client partners supporting creativity as a means to drive meaningful change and through a collaborative community of agencies all working towards the same goal: to help close the Gender Pain Gap.”
