In the current issues of Spin, Arthur, Tokion, and the Fader, there’s a free CD called Songs of Hurt and Healing, with three unreleased tracks from Texas drone-pop combo American Analog Set and three more from Brooklyn avant-folk trio White Magic. At a glance the disc looks like it might be a promotional sampler from Drag City or Tiger Style, but turn it over and you’ll see an unobtrusive and unlikely credit: “Brought to you by Tylenol.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Ouch! is the handiwork of BrainReserve, a New York marketing company headed by trend guru Faith Popcorn. Dubbed the “Nostradamus of marketing” by Fortune magazine, Popcorn urged Pepsi to get into the business of bottled water back in the 80s, when the idea seemed ludicrous, and in the late 90s, well in advance of the fast-food backlash, encouraged McDonald’s to create a health-conscious menu. Her company specializes in long-term strategy, and frequently helps large corporations anticipate changes they need to make to keep their brand identities vital and address consumer demands.
BrainReserve’s first goal was to find out how 18-to-29-year-olds view pain. “For this new generation pain is a badge. Pain is a rite of passage; it means you’re living life to the fullest,” says Wong. “It’s not always very obvious physical pain. It could be the athletic pain of a BMX biker or skateboarder; it can also be emotional pain, creative pain, the pain of being an artist, a suffering artist. The pain of being a musician. There’s all sorts of pain. What Ouch! was designed to do was allow that generation to speak and explore pain through their own eyes and their own heroes.”
“It’s still marketing, they still have an agenda to accomplish,” says Arthur publisher Laris Kreslins, also an Ouch! contributor and consultant. “But the interesting thing is they don’t put too many parameters on the people creating these collateral elements. They’re not like, ‘You have to slap Tylenol logos everywhere.’”
Tylenol’s efforts to cozy up to indie culture may seem incongruous, but Lunt says that’s actually a good sign. “The most successful campaigns tend to have a confounding effect at first,” he says. “If you and I are thinking, ‘What are they thinking?’ then there’s usually some serious thinking going on.”
