Nurofen’s pain game campaign exposes the harsh reality of women’s pain dismissals for what they are – a losing game. The campaign is built around a real-life board game featuring the dismissals women hear – “It’s all in your head.” “You’re just stressed.” “You’re being emotional.” The setbacks in the game symbolise how accessing a pain diagnosis can feel like battling an unfair, rigged system. The campaign also builds on insights from Nurofen’s Gender Pain Gap report that found 1 in 2 women felt their pain was dismissed or ignored due to their gender.*

Pain Game by McCann London builds on Nurofen’s Grand Effie-winning See My Pain platform.

Nikki Hayward, category director at Nurofen, statedm “Women shouldn’t have to fight to be believed about their own bodies. ‘See My Pain’ exists to make the invisible visible. But this is much more than a campaign. It’s a commitment to invest in the research and training that will actually close this gap. That’s why Nurofen is backing the campaign with real action. This new chapter of ‘See My Pain’ reflects the brand’s significant, ongoing investment in systemic change: funding groundbreaking new research, gender bias training for medical professionals, tools for women and doctors to improve pain diagnosis.”

McCann cast real women living with pain conditions to capture their unfiltered accounts of the healthcare inequities women like them face every day. It calls on healthcare professionals, policymakers, and every organisation that touches women’s health, to work together to help end women’s pain dismissals.

The campaign is runnnig across TV, digital, social, and retail in the UK.

*Nurofen Gender Pain Gap Index Report 2023. 

Credits
Client: Reckitt (Nurofen)
Marketing Director: David Shillcock
Category Director: Nikki Hayward 
Senior Brand Manager: Cal McKim
Brand Manager: Charlotte Mizen

Creative Agency: McCann London 
Creative Director: Jessica Giles
Producer: Zara Balfour
Strategy Partner: Jocelyn Major
Global Brand Lead; Katie Edwards
Business Director: Morgan Lafferty
Account Director: Lynsey Pulsford

PR: Golin
Production: Shutterstock
Director: Margot Bowman
Photographer: Mollie Rose Skeffington
1st Assistant Director: Elaine Mackenzie
2nd Assistant Director: Josey Jacobs
Director of Photography: Joel Honeywell 
Production Designer: Anna Rhodes
Location Manager: Josh Yudkin
Executive Producer: Phoebe Scott
Producer: Giordi Caputo & Rochelle Achie

Media Partner: WPP Media 
Digital Asset Studio: Energy