Tylenol Complete has teamed up with the EDM duo Loud Luxury to launch “Sick to SIIIICK.” The campaign is an effort to redefine how people think about cold and flu relief through a club-friendly track using the sounds of coughs and sneezing. Messaging includes, “listen to your worst symptoms turned into siiiick beats.”

Julian Saddy, brand team lead of cough and cold and naturals at Kenvue, tells strategy the work focuses on flipping the category narrative, where competitors always lean into the fact that it really sucks to have the common cold.

“For us, one of the biggest insights…was around the way that Gen Z experiences cold and flu,” Saddy says, adding it differs compared to older demos who want to simply wait out an illness.

In a post-COVID environment, customers are much more wary of the symptoms they are outwardly projecting, including coughing and sneezing in public and showing up places obviously sick, Saddy explains.

Canadian government incidence tracking reveals that colds and flus are significantly lower than pre-COVID baselines, Saddy says. The relief category, however, has increased 30%, with people treating symptoms more aggressively even if less illness abounds. “There’s a lot of new consumers to the category as a result,” he says.

Media channels for “Sick to Siiiick,” the Tylenol x Loud Luxury partnership include: OOH [TTC + GO Transit subway cars] national digital/social, with a focus on Toronto that includes the platforms YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. There is also organic influencer content. All media, across OOH and digital/social, drives to a Tylenol Sick Beats landing page with the full three-minute song + where-to-buys.

One Method is the creative agency behind the campaign and UM Canada’s OneVue handled the buy.

Earlier this year, Tylenol was named the Official Cold & Flu Relief Partner of the National Hockey League in Canada, with creative, also by OneMethod, reaching out to eliminated fanbases of Canadian NHL teams.