The idea was to create a safety net of aspirin carriers by arming people with the last name Smith —the most common last name in America—with aspirin.

We set out to build a safety net of aspirin-carrying Smiths, to make sure there’s always aspirin around. But first we had to arm them. We created and made available HeroSmith Kits, which transformed ordinary Smiths into HeroSmiths, providing the tools and information needed to carry aspirin and help save a life. Then we went to a town with one of the highest heart attack rates in the country to arm every Smith with aspirin and see our theory in action. They became the voice of the brand in an online documentary series. We even went to public events – where people are actually more likely to have heart attacks – to recognize and arm Smiths. From there, people took it upon themselves to recruit more Smiths, spreading the message and growing our network of aspirin-carrying HeroSmiths.

Smiths in America have embraced the campaign. And by reaching out to the 2.4 million Smiths, we reached 63.5 million individual people in the first couple of weeks. Not only have we created a reason for an entirely new market to purchase aspirin, but after being exposed to the campaign, people are 233% more likely to agree that Bayer Aspirin is a brand they love. Behavior-wise, the intent to carry aspirin has increased 67.4% nationwide, with over 88,000 pledges to carry aspirin in the first couple of weeks.