McCann London And Nurofen Create Music Track To Help People Tolerate Pain

The Tune Out Pain project has brought together the worlds of science and music to create a unique track that can be listened to when people are experiencing pain

By Creative Salon

26 September 2021

Music can help people better tolerate acute pain, according to a new experiment supported by Nurofen.

The Tune Out Pain project, devised and developed in collaboration with McCann London, brought together the worlds of science and music to create a unique track which can be listened to when people are experiencing pain. It will be launched during the current Pain Awareness Month.

Nurofen’s first-of-its-kind study partnered Dr Claire Howlin, psychology researcher, University College Dublin with music producer, Anatole, (aka Jonathan Baker) a conservatory-trained trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist to compose the track, All of Us.

Released on Spotify, All of Us, was shown to reduce levels of pain intensity and unpleasantness in a way that was clinically and statistically significant. By applying instrumental and orchestral sounds, such as strings, pianos, bells, and minor vocal samples, the track elicits a sense of wonder and empowerment to inspire mental strength to help dissociate from pain.

To create the track’s art cover, McCann London collaborated with artist Nicholas Rougeux, who has translated sound into a visual language, using data visualization. To create his visualizations, Rougeux alters the traditional representation of scale, typically noted by the different clefs on sheet music. Each individual instrument is represented by a different colour.

To support the track launch, the campaign will launch across Spotify, Facebook and YouTube. The aim of this initiative is to bring this specialist science into the mainstream, and start a conversation around alternative and holistic ways to help manage pain, during this September Pain Awareness Month.

Media was handled through Zenith, Digital is led through RB Studios, with PR delivered through Havas SO.

Sezi Unluturk, category manager at Nurofen said: “At Nurofen, we believe that pain should not hold people back from living their lives to the full. Nurofen are pioneers in pain management and committed to finding new solutions that go ‘beyond the pill’. Tune Out Pain was developed to help further scientific knowledge of new holistic pain management techniques that can complement existing pain-relieving medications. We encourage people to speak with their pharmacist or GP if they have concerns managing their acute pain.”

Sanjiv Mistry and Jamie Mietz, executive creative directors at McCann, added: “Nurofen has always been relentlessly innovative in its product development. We’re really proud to be collaborating with them on creating unconventional services like this – a music track scientifically engineered to help with acute pain – all in a quest to help them find interesting and effective new ways to put people in charge of their pain management.”

CREDITS

Nurofen:

Health Regional Director Strategy and Marketing: Charlotte Shloesing

Category Manager: Sezi Unluturk

Senior Brand Manager: Sandra Toivo

Assistant Brand Manager: Natália Albertini

McCann London

Creative Agency: McCann London

Chief Creative Officers: Laurence Thomson & Rob Doubal

Chief Strategy Officer: Theo Izzard-Brown

Executive Creative Directors: Sanjiv Mistry & Jamie Mietz

Creative Directors: Rob Webster & Alexei Berwitz