Johnson & Johnson's Pepcid AC returns to the Super Bowl for a second year in a row with this ad, again by Saatchi & Saatchi New York, sketching a more touching vignette and putting football forward as well.
J&J made another buy for 1997, when Fox was averaging $1.2 million on every 30 seconds sold, for Tylenol's "Practice."
Pepcid AC ran "Mexican Food" in Super Bowl XXX the year prior, part of the enormous marketing war among over-the-counter heartburn remedies that erupted after the makers of prescription Tagamet began seeking approval for a gentler version it could sell without a doctor's permission. Pepcid AC, as it turned out, was first to market, in summer of 1995.
Director: John Alper.
Co-creative director/art director: Howie Cohen. Co-creative director/copywriter: Gary Weintraub.
BRAND: Pepcid AC
YEAR: 1997
AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi
SUPERBOWL: XXXI