Cough syrup maker W.K. Buckley is attempting to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes with the launch of its first tv spots in support of its recently introduced Buckley’s Bedtime cough syrup.

The spot, one of two executions by Buckley’s new agency, Toronto shop SMW Advertising, features affable company President Frank Buckley on stage with a small herd of sheep.

He tells viewers they can count on the new Bedtime formula to help them sleep more easily by relieving dry hacking coughs and runny noses. As a few sheep pass him, he adds ‘Éso you won’t have to count on them.’

A second spot features the same message and setting, but Buckley is seen only in silhouette – without his woolly friends – getting ready for bed behind a dressing screen. He later appears wearing pyjamas and holding a teddy bear.

The Bedtime formula features an antihistamine that brings on drowsiness, but the syrup otherwise retains the brand’s traditional no-sugar, no-alcohol, no-nonsense formulation. Due to the strong taste of the medication, the target market is cold sufferers between the ages of 18 and 44.

The smw spots build on themes established by Buckley’s previous agency, Bensimon Byrne (which resigned the account earlier this year due to a conflict following its merger with dmb&b), and leverage the fluid’s trademark ability to induce the gag response.

Using the tag line ‘It still tastes awful and it works,’ smw’s brief was to maintain the same look and light-hearted humor of the company’s previous advertising, says David Rieger, vice-president of sales and marketing of Mississauga, Ont.-based W.K. Buckley.

While still too soon to gauge seasonal sales, early indications are that the product has been ‘very well-received’ according to Rieger.

Although Buckley’s Bedtime was launched nationally in July, tv spots went to air only last week. The company says it waited to release the spots so they would break near the beginning of the cold and flu season.

The media buy was handled by Toronto’s Media Dimensions.

According to figures from ACNielsen, the non-prescription cough syrup market is worth more than $81 million dollars in Canada. Buckley claims to have 9.6% of that market.