Buckley’s is still conceding that it tastes awful – just less awful – to promote a new honey-flavoured offering.

The Haleon brand’s latest work, “Sticky Situation,” sees a cold sufferer stuck to a honey squeeze bottle. At the core of the campaign is a riff on Buckley’s nearly 40-year-old tagline, “it tastes awful, and it works,” transformed into “it tastes less awful, and it works.”

“We didn’t want to over-promise a great taste because it wouldn’t be true to our legacy, but if you try the new Buckley’s Soothing Mixture, you will still notice it’s Buckley’s just that the honey helps to make it go down easier while still delivering the same relief that consumers are used to it,” explains Ana Logreira, senior brand manager at Haleon Canada.

“Our iconic tagline is a key distinctive asset for Buckley’s, and we are not planning to move away from it,” says Logreira. With its latest innovation, she says Buckley’s found a creative way to “evolve the brand story with a clever tweak.”

Running until Dec. 15, the campaign is by Saatchi & Saatchi, part of Publicis Groupe Canada, and encompasses a mix of TV, social media and out-of-home, including a notable presence in the pedestrian walkway between Toronto’s Union Station and the TTC.

Logreira says OOH is not an always-on media tactic for the Buckley’s brand. However, for the new Buckley’s Soothing Mixture launch the objective was to reach new audiences and it needed to consider more disruptive tactics. In order to connect with younger consumers, who may not be familiar with Buckley’s as a nostalgia brand, it’s deploying digital and social media tactics, which are all part of an integrated plan to “build brand awareness and relevance with this key demographic that will sustain the brand’s future.”

Launched to coincide with this year’s cold and flu season, Buckley’s is looking to build on the success of last year’s “No-Nonsense Relief” campaign, a humorous take on the “mythical powers” of chicken soup.

“Since launch [of that campaign] the Buckley’s brand has gained an impressive +1.2 points of market share, +1.0 points of household penetration, and +10% growth in consumption dollars,” Logreira says, citing NielsenIQ Retail Measurement and Total CCF for the L52W period ending Oct. 5.

“Our honesty and humour have been critical in creating an emotional connection with consumers over the years and have helped us drive differentiation among all brands available to them,” Logreira says.