Dive Brief:

• Dramamine has produced a mini-documentary that serves as a tribute to the barf bag, an invention that the over-the-counter nausea relief brand has helped make less relevant, according to news shared with Marketing Dive.
• The marketer interviewed barf bag collectors, medical experts and everyday people with memorable vomit-related stories for “The Last Barf Bag: Bidding Farewell to an American Icon.” The content marketing piece recalls the history of barf bags, which were introduced roughly 75 years ago, around the same period as Dramamine.  
• This is Dramamine’s largest marketing investment since 2010, when it was acquired by Prestige Consumer Healthcare. Dramamine has grown its business by 30% in recent years and could stoke further brand awareness with the creative play that goes for the gut.

Dive Insight:

Those prone to emetophobia may want to steer clear of Dramamine’s latest campaign, which not only pays tribute to the barf bag, but also shares stories of motion sickness gone wrong, inclusive of descriptions of various forms of vomit. 

The brand marketed by Prestige Consumer Healthcare is positioning the effort as a mea culpa, claiming its products are effective enough to have diminished the societal necessity of barf bags. That achievement represents a potential blow to barf bag collectors, a hobbyist group that’s central to the documentary and “just as interesting as they sound,” per details shared with Marketing Dive. 

In “The Last Barf Bag,” these enthusiasts detail some of their favorite airsick bag finds and other endeavors, like trying to come up with a more sophisticated term than “barf bag.” The doc also dives into how the barf bag came to be and its current manufacturing status, along with talking to everyday consumers about their most impressionable tales of upchuck and Dramamine marketing executives on the success of the brand.    

“At Dramamine, we’ve spent the last 75 years perfecting the art of nausea prevention. Unfortunately, that pursuit may have had an unintended side effect: barf bags don’t have as much barf to catch anymore, and their industry has been impacted as a result,” a website promoting the campaign reads. “That just didn’t sit right with us.”

TheLastBarfBag.com additionally features profiles of the collectors interviewed for the doc and a shoppable collection of repurposed barf bags that come with colorful designs and Dramamine products. Jessie Bearden, a creative director who appeared on NBC’s “Making It,” also designed a one-of-a-kind wearable jacket made of barf bags that will go on sale April 17. Dramamine enlisted agency FCB Chicago for the campaign, while Sunny Sixteen handled directing duties. 

The oddball content marks Dramamine’s most substantial marketing investment in the 14 years since Prestige acquired the brand from McNeil-PPC for $76 million. Specific figures on the media spend were not available. Post-acquisition, Dramamine stated it has grown its category share in motion sickness from around 30% to 60%. Prestige saw revenue increase 2.6% year-over-year in Q3 $282.7 million, in line with Wall Street’s estimates.