Supervision for over-the-counter medication advertising is under the jurisdiction of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is highly regulated. All claims and statements must be factual, proven and "on label." In addition, the atmosphere surrounding the marketing of OTC medication is highly litigious. Marketers are often sued for claims they make, rightly or wrongly, and must be able to defend statements in their advertising. Hyperbole, exaggeration and metaphor can be difficult to defend. The Pepcid Burns Family campaign managed the difficult task of directly challenging a competitor and using creativity to change perception while strictly adhering to the guidelines.

Tums® has long dominated the market in OTC heartburn relief. It’s been around so long, it’s become tradition. Pepcid® on the other hand, had just returned to the market after a two-year hiatus. We were the small brand that needed a big comeback.

Our best bet? Take on Tums® and challenge brand loyalists to question their choice. Or rather, non-choice. Tums® users don't think about what they're taking. They simply take Tums® because they always have, even though its relief doesn't last.

Pepcid® has an advantage. It works fast and lasts. To shake Tums® users out of their complacency, we introduced them to their stubborn selves. The Burns family, a dysfunctional family with a fiery tradition of heartburn, mirrors the blind-faith of the Tums® user. Except for one son, Randy, who has discovered Pepcid®. But if he has any hope of convincing his family and America to break their Tums® tradition, he'll need some serious help.

TV alone wouldn’t cut it. Tums® would massively outspend us. So Pepcid® went non-traditional, with heavy media weight online. We took advantage of contextual holidays like Thanksgiving. And Tums® users got the message. Pepcid brand favorability shot up 10.6% and sales followed, increasing +18%.

Returning from a two-year hiatus, Pepcid® desperately needed to raise both awareness and drive sales. To do that, we needed to take on the category leader, Tums®, and steal from their consumer base. If Pepcid® could grab their attention, we could convert those dissatisfied yet complacent users by offering longer lasting heartburn relief.

Pepcid Presents: The Burns Family

The Burns take Tums®. Does it last? No. But hey, like most Tums® users, they don’t think about it. Ever. After all, they’re stuck in their ways. We pushed the humor and ridiculousness to exaggerate this point. A fresh, witty humor allowed Pepcid® to steal attention and break through the category clutter with a clever new voice. The Burns showed up in pre-roll for family sitcoms, on YouTube and even at Thanksgiving dinner. At every turn, their humor helped Tums® complacents relate to the Burns and laugh at their own dysfunctional behavior.

After two years of silence from the brand, The Burns Family campaign was heard loud and clear by consumers. Pepcid sales jumped +18% in the first 17 weeks. Our share grew from 4.2% to 4.9% in the same amount of time. Brand Favorability also jumped +10.6%. And by the end of 2013, Pepcid® was the only H2 medication to increase its YOY household penetration. Not bad for the little guy.

Moderate to severe heartburn sufferers weren’t getting long-lasting relief from Tums®. Their heartburn went away temporarily, but then it’d come right back, and they’d have to pop even more Tums®. Yet, they continued taking Tums® year after year. They’d become complacent with its sub-par relief and had resigned themselves to life with heartburn that keeps coming back. It was tradition.

Pepcid® would hold up the mirror and show Tums® users just how ridiculous it was to keep taking Tums® if their heartburn just keeps coming back.

Tums® has long dominated the market in OTC heartburn relief. It’s been around so long, it’s practically a family tradition. Yep, Tums® users have continued taking it throughout the years, despite the fact that Tums® doesn’t last and leaves them with heartburn that keeps coming back. But, they're not ready to move up to a prescription heartburn relief. If Pepcid® could get Tums® users to realize there's a better option, we'd all feel a lot better. Well, except for the folks over at Tums®.