Title	A HARD PILL TO SWALLOW
Brand	APOTEK HJÄRTAT
Product/Service	APOTEK HJÄRTAT
Category	G07. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility
Entrant	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	BKRY Stockholm, SWEDEN
Post Production	BKRY Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Martin Noreby	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Simon Lublin	Åkestam Holst NoA	Copywriter
Joakim Khoury	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Rickard Beskow	Åkestam Holst NoA	Copywriter
Michal Sitkiewicz	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Magnus Jakobsson	Åkestam Holst NoA	Creative Director
Lina Engler	Åkestam Holst NoA	Account Director
Linda Bryttmar	Åkestam Holst NoA	Account Manager
Jennie Strinnhed	Åkestam Holst NoA	Account Manager
Karl Wikström	Åkestam Holst NoA	Strategist
Digge Zetterberg Odh	NoA	PR Director

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

By creating a new harmful medicine made from water polluted by the pharmaceutical industry we managed to highlight a hidden problem and get people to understand the importance of focusing on sustainable produced medicines. We generated response by re-packaging pollution as a form of a harmful medicine, and turned it into the keystone of an integrated campaign, engaging both the public, the politicians and the media. As the public started to question how their medicines are produced, the politicians have now proposed a new law to add stricter environmental requirements in the procurement of medicinal drugs.

Background

Hyderabad in India is the world’s biggest manufacturing site for medicine. More than 50% of India’s global exports of medicine are produced here, and make up the major share of medicine imported to the US, Europe and Sweden – our home market. But due to lack of environmental oversight, many factories in Hyderabad still dump their waste straight into nature. This means the medicine we take for our health in Sweden and other wealthy countries is actively making people sick and polluting the environment in parts of the world struggling with bigger inequalities. Apotek Hjärtat, Sweden’s biggest privately owned pharmacy, has been working actively with sustainability since the start in 2010. In 2019 we decided to do our part in making pharmaceuticals more sustainable, and make sure the medicine we sell doesn’t harm others, even though it meant going against our own industry.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We collected 100 liters of water near the pharmaceutical factories in Hyderabad. In collaboration with Sweden’s most outstanding laboratories, RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), we then analyzed the water and extracted the active substances, resulting in a completely new kind of medicine: Sordidum Pharmacum - a deadly cocktail extracted from pharma polluted water. The new ”medicine” was used in an integrated campaign (print, TVC, OOH, SoMe) that aimed to open the eyes of the general public in order to put pressure on politicians in Sweden and the EU. We sent the pills to politicians together with a medication package insert that states what we found in the water, what the effects are, and what we wanted to be done; adding sustainability criteria in the procurement of pharmaceuticals on a nationwide level. We also invited all Swedish pharmacies to join us in launching the world’s first label for sustainable pharmaceuticals.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

A Hard Pill To Swallow was aimed at the general population in Sweden, in order to influence politicians and key decision makers. By making the problem of medical pollution more immediate and tangible, and the general public more aware that the medicine they took for their health was making people sick on the other side of the world, we could generate the outrage and urgency to effect real change. By turning polluted water into a new medicine, we could also make the European and international community take notice of the potentially horrific consequences of offshoring medical production to countries with lacking environmental regulations. That by only prioritizing our health in the Western world, we could unconsciously be making other people ill, harming the environment and sowing the seeds of future pandemics.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The water was collected from the vicinity of pharmaceutical factories in the summer of 2019. After that, RISE performed examinations and extractions during August and September. The result was 60 grams of extracted substances that were turned into Sordidum Pharmacum pills. The pills were shown at our pharmacies, sent to politicians and used in all our activities. On our website we informed the public on the issues and result of not having a sustainability criteria when procuring pharmaceuticals. On the website they could also download the official lab report from RISE and find out how they could influence the politicians to act. We spread the initiative via long and short films, various print ads aimed at politicians and the public in Sweden’s largest newspapers and through traditional PR. In addition, we invited all of our competitors to join in launching a sustainability label based on our precursor “Follow Your Heart”.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign received heavy coverage in Swedish news, was seen by 1/3 of the population, drove 1 in 10 Swedes to visit the campaign site and generated 10 000 downloads of the report. Back in India, it was covered by the world’s second largest English newspaper - The Times of India. But more importantly, it changed things. The campaign led to all major Swedish pharmacies launching a shared label for sustainable pharmaceuticals, based on Apotek Hjärtats original label. Two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have contacted Apotek Hjärtat to see what they need to change to receive the label. A new law will soon be passed in Swedish parliament demanding stricter environmental criteria when procuring pharmaceuticals. By turning pollution into a pill we made the problem real enough for people to react and politicians to act, and revealed the problems hidden under the surface of the pharmaceutical world.

Please tell us how the brand purpose inspired the work

Apotek Hjärtat is Sweden’s biggest privately-owned pharmacy chain. As one of the biggest players in the Swedish pharmacy market, they want to have a positive impact on the environment. Apoetk Hjärtat had a label highlighting drugs that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way. Unfortunately, this label isn't allowed on a majority of the medicinal drugs being sold as those medicines are regulated by the law, and the only one who can affect these laws are politicians. In order to put pressure on politicians, we decided to create “A hard pill to swallow”. A new way of exposing the horrible consequences that the manufacturing of medicinal drugs have on the environment and the locals living in those areas.