If you look at one haemorrhoid cream brand extension today, make it this one

You may not have ever paid too much attention to what brand of haemorrhoid cream you pick up off the shelf on a dash of shame to the self-checkout machine, but Elmwood’s new brand expression for Preparation H is going to change that. The design consultancy is also hoping to change that dash of shame into a stride of pride, with designs that leverage humour to tackle embarrassment around butt health.

“From the start, the tension facing Preparation H was clear,” explains a release from Elmwood. “Most people will experience haemorrhoids at some point, but there’s a shame attached to talking about it openly.” The consultancy saw an opportunity to tackle the taboo head-on, opting for funny, relatable designs. “Highly shareable” illustrations and animations from Elmwood form the basis for Preparation H’s wider brand comms, helping to appeal to a wider range of customers.

Avoiding cold medical language, colloquialisms like “derriere”, and the delightfully rarer “keister”, appear throughout the copy, alongside captions such as: “Your butt is behind you no matter what”. The release explains this sense of “playful confidence” also translates into a quirky typeface for the brand.

Bizarrely, in addition to the hilarious new brand expression, ad agency Grey Group has built a microsite for Preparation H that allows customers to create personalised butt-related Valentine’s Day cards for their loved ones. Visitors to the site will be met with the tag lines: “Let your butt do the talking” and “Get to the bottom of your relationship.”

Krista Oraa, Elmwood’s creative director adds: “Preparation H has a unique place in the market. We knew there was an opportunity to enhance this by creating a brand expression that is built on humour to challenge the stigma associated with this area of health. With the new assets we created, Preparation H now has a reinvigorated brand that builds awareness across a broader demographic and signals change to the consumer.”