HIGHLIGHTS
About $7,000,000. That's how much two of my mock ads helped SSW win for this first-of-its-kind treatment for menopausal women. No pay raise. No confetti. No call from the Chairman. I was still new at the agency, but I did receive a mini-bottle of champagne in the mail. It was like a pint of milk instead of a quart.
CONCEPT
Black-and-white mock concept created for an SSW pitch for VEOZAH, a first-to-market non-hormonal menopause treatment. RetroHumor used dry wit, restraint, and vintage visual cues to speak plainly about vasomotor symptoms with a straight face.
BRIEF
The pitch needed an idea that didn’t soften menopause or apologize for it. The ask was simple: speak plainly, strike a tone with bite, and avoid the usual pharmacy-aisle clichés.
CHALLENGE
My mom went through menopausal symptoms for close to 20 years, and she'll be the first to tell you, "Hot flashes are awful, and night sweats are messy." In other words, they suck. I wasn't about to write stiff, stuffy, and sucky copy for this pitch. My tone had to have bite, some restraint, and a bit of wink.
IDEA
A brand-new menopause drug needed an idea that didn’t tiptoe. The brief was simple: find a way to talk about vasomotor symptoms (i.e. VMS, or night sweats and hot flashes) without talking like a pharmaceutical brochure. They wanted honesty that didn’t flinch and humor that didn’t soften the blow.
WORKWORKWORK
A little sarcasm can go a long way. With my Art partner, we built a black-and-white, deadpan world where every line oozed Captinas Obvious-like truth. Like, duh. Analog, lo-fi, Readers' Digest-esque visuals meets Sebastian Maniscalo stream-of-consciousness meets Jimmy Carr dry. Just saying what pharma actually wants to say, but can't.
RESULTS
This pitch proved one thing: menopause could crash the man-cave. During Super Bowl LVIII, VEOZAH showed up and forced VMS into the broadcast men treat like sacred ground. Living rooms went quiet. Bars froze. Even the man-cold stepped aside. And just like that, VMS had the conversation lit like hot flashes.
TAKEAWAY
Sarcasm is a scalpel. Retro Humor proved you can cut through decades of clinical euphemisms with one clean, darkly funny line—and suddenly a menopause conversation becomes unskippable, unforgettable, and impossible for men to mute.