How AstraZeneca courted controversy to build a brand

Marylyn Donahue

This event report outlines how AstraZeneca, the pharma company, boldly kickstarted a conversation around opioid-induced constipation (OIC) to help build its Movantik brand.

Reaching an audience of more than 111 million viewers, an unbranded spot run during the 2016 Super Bowl told the story of a man suffering from opioid-induced constipation (OIC) who imagines – and, indeed, envies – the successful bowel movements of everyone he meets, right down to a local dog.

The ad, entitled "Envy", was created by pharma giant AstraZeneca. And it sparked an explosion of public outrage, as well as criticism from medical and political leaders – including a rebuke from The White House, at that time occupied by President Barack Obama.

More specifically, AstraZeneca was accused of trying...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands