HOW DOES A TOPICAL PAIN RELEIVER BECOME PART OF A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE WITHOUT FEELING LIKE AN AD?
Aspercreme needed to change perceptions of both the brand and the 55+ audience it served. So we found a cultural partner that embodied our belief that getting older doesn't mean getting boring: Spinal Tap.

BACKGROUND:
Aspercreme, the seventh-largest topical pain relief brand in the U.S., had a big problem: nobody was paying enough attention. The category was dominated by bigger, better-known brands like Biofreeze, Icy Hot & Bengay. & our 55+ audience faced a similar perception problem. They were constantly overlooked, stereotyped and underestimated despite being far more interesting than advertising gave them credit for. That led us to a simple strategic truth: Age makes you interesting. Pain makes you dull.

So we launched Act Your Age, a brand platform designed to challenge the stereotypes surrounding aging by celebrating people who refuse to let age or pain dictate what they can do. Then we went looking for stories, partnerships & cultural moments that could bring that belief to life.

OPPORTUNITY:
To change perceptions of an aging pain-relief brand, we needed to go somewhere unexpected. Hollywood. A topical pain cream for arthritis doesn't exactly scream entertainment. But we found the perfect cultural vehicle in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the sequel to the 1984 cult classic about the world's most eccentric rock band. Only this time, the band was 40 years older, a whole lot achier & heading out on one final tour.

Which raised one important question: What does an aging, arthritic rock band put on its tour rider?

CREATIVE IDEA:
Rock bands are famous for their outrageous tour riders: the increasingly bizarre list of things they demand backstage, from Van Halen's legendary brown M&M clause to Mötley Crüe's 12-foot boa constrictor. So we created one for Spinal Tap. The band's rider featured everything you'd expect from these eccentric aging rockers: a jar of London fog, a 17th-century Hungarian dictionary &, most importantly... Aspercreme. Rather than make another celebrity endorsement with actors holding a product & reciting talking points, we made Aspercreme part of the Spinal Tap universe itself, using the film's iconic mockumentary style & the actors' signature deadpan humor to make the partnership feel like an authentic extension of the movie. The product wasn't the punchline. The characters were. & Aspercreme simply happened to be something these aging rock legends couldn't live without.

STRATEGY:
Insight.
Our 55+ audience doesn't want to be marketed to like they're old.

Stragety.
Aspercreme believes age makes you interesting; it's pain that makes you dull. So our strategy is to continuously find unexpected ways to celebrate older people doing interesting, inspiring & downright badass things. With a limited budget, traditional media couldn't deliver the cultural relevance we needed. So instead of buying attention, we looked for a cultural moment that already had it. Spinal Tap II was a natural fit. The franchise was built around characters who refuse to act their age, while its comedy-first audience overlapped perfectly with our entertainment-hungry 55+ consumer. By integrating Aspercreme directly into the band's tour rider, we could make the brand feel native to the story rather than adjacent to it.

The partnership gave us a way to bypass traditional advertising conventions, earn attention through entertainment & demonstrate a simple brand belief: Pain relief shouldn't stop you from doing the things that make you interesting.

EXECUTION:
The work had to feel like Spinal Tap, not an ad starring Spinal Tap. We recreated the iconic mockumentary style of the original film & worked with all four lead actors, giving them tightly scripted prompts & scenarios while leaving room for the improvisational style that made their characters famous. That balance allowed us to naturally weave in product benefits & application moments without sacrificing the deadpan humor & character authenticity audiences expected.

The goal was simple: Make people wonder if they were watching an actual scene from the movie.

We launched the hero film alongside the movie's promotional campaign, putting a significant portion of our media investment behind cinema placements to reach our 55+ audience in the one place we knew they would be: sitting in a theater, waiting to be entertained. We complemented cinema with Facebook & YouTube, meeting the audience where they spend their time outside the theater.

RESULTS:
We turned the campaign results up to eleven.

• +6% increase in base sales in the week following the partnership.

• +33% organic social engagement rate vs. benchmark.

• 63% completion rate on our 30-second skippable YouTube ad.

• 53% completion rate on the long-form hero film.

• 10% of opening-weekend moviegoers across 2,000+ theaters were familiar with the Aspercreme partnership.

& the partnership didn't just capture attention. It earned it.

Despite sharing the Spinal Tap II rollout with major music brands including Hard Rock Hotels & Marshall Guitars, Aspercreme generated more PR than both brands combined.

Ad Age called it “a perfect partnership.”
Campaign Magazine called it “hilarious.”
Muse by Clio said, “Forget champagne, Spinal Tap needs Aspercreme.”

But the best validation came from the fans:

“Finally, a celebrity product endorsement that makes sense.”

“Greatest product placement ever.”

“I thought this was an actual scene from the film.”

AWARDS:
Gold Clio, Silver Clio, Silver Pencil, Bronze Pencil, & Cannes Lions Shortlist