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St. Joseph Aspirin

Inspire partnered with St. Joseph Aspirin to create their most successful advertising and commercial campaign in the history of their company.

McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, St. Joseph’s parent company, wanted to emotionally appeal to its audience about their aspirin.

The answer… “Pumps Your Blood,” a song written by Inspire’s President Jimmy Dunne. It’s a fun, kid-orientated song that explains how the circulatory system works.

Jimmy Dunne wrote it many moons ago as a writer and producer on ABC’s hit show, “Happy Days.” In the award-winning episode, “Potsie Quits School,” Anson Williams, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler sing and dance to the song to a classroom scene.

Thousands of grammar school and high school teachers in classrooms all across the country were suddenly teaching their students how the circulatory system worked through a song from a “Happy Days” episode.

This nostalgic song seemed like the perfect fit for St. Joseph’s new campaign…

They created a commercial with a bouncing-ball tracking the words on screen — and a new generation of kids were learning the song.

Unexpectedly, the campaign has turned into a hit.

“In the history of the brand and McNeil, we’ve never received a response like this,” said Ami Schmitz-Levine, spokesperson for the company, which manufactures St. Joseph. “People are really over the moon about this song. The brand manager said we’re getting 150 to 200 calls a week from consumers. What’s great about this is ‘Happy Days’ is vintage cool and our brand has a rich vintage history.”

Do people actually get nostalgic about aspirin? People do, Schmitz-Levine says, particularly baby aspirin. “This was the little orange pill we took as a kid. It resonates with consumers the same way this music and the times resonated with viewers.”

The video appeared on the first page of St. Joseph Aspirin’s website — and generated the most traffic in the history of the site.

The commercial spawned hundreds of YouTube videos of kids and teachers using the song.

Check out the video at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyHkONpH40

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVErhyBu3gQ