Tylenol's Diverse 'How We Family' Campaign

How We Family

The makers of Tylenol have served society for 60 years. This past summer, Tylenol set forth on a campaign about a larger message other than selling their product. As seen on networks such as ABC and CBS the advertisement “How We Family,” produced Tylenol, sells the idea that individuals are different and that all should be accepted. This commercial represents family in many ways such as multiracial, same sex, ethnic, and many others. The ad became a topic of controversy because of the representations of such diverse relations. The advertisements character, values, and logic appeal to the younger generations of families who demand more tolerances for differences. Tylenol changing with society makes their ad successful in various

(Wong) Tylenol furthered this concept in “How We Family” because it does not just show the atypical American family, but how over the years the definition of has changed. Before releasing “How We Family” Tylenol began a three month effort. During those three months the corporation conducted a national survey. Some of the results from the survey uncovered that “41 percent of families say no TV family represents them, 84 percent surveyed say their family is “traditional” regardless of structure, and 82 percent wouldn’t change a thing to fit the norm.” (Celebrating) In addition to the survey they produced 10 in-depth videos on families around the U.S. The commercial shows us a glimpse of what families look like, but Tylenol uses YouTube to make known the stories of real life people. One of these stories showcases actress Gabrielle Unions relatives. The company obtained Gail Saltz, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, as spokeswomen for the platform.

Tylenol did not use the mundane stats that most often used in commercials surrounding these types of companies. In Advil’s commercial “Tough on Joint Pain,” it bashes fellow competitor such as Tylenol and throws statistics down the audience’s throat. This type of adverting remains ineffective; people with different beliefs will automatically tune out the ad just because they do not like the brand presented. Tylenol chose to do the opposite of what Advil did. To keep the attention of viewers for longer they did not market Tylenols name until the very end of the commercial. Through this the audience can watch the commercial without bias they can choose to form a new opinion about Tylenol as a company. This allows Tylenol to gain new customers because of the larger audience it reaches with this technique. The simplistic way the ending reveals the company and their slogan ”For what matters the most,” draws the audience, back in to realize that it was just an ad trying to sell