A Comedy Showcase for Pharmacists Lands Boots in the top 1% of Healthcare Ads

For many, Autumn is the season of sniffles, sore throats and sleepless nights. As the nights draw in and temperatures drop, Brits are prone to all kinds of minor ailments, especially when you mix in those back-to-school bugs the kids bring home. The problem is that an awful lot of these illnesses go untreated at home, which not only makes their sufferers miserable, it makes germs easier to spread. According to new research from Boots, two in five (39%) people admit to regularly de-prioritising their health during this busy period. Feeling a burden to GPs (40%) and the time it takes to book and go to an appointment (49%), came out as the top reasons people may put their health on hold[i].

Boots’ new ad with The Pharm (led creatively by VML) has the answer. Titled “You’re never too far from a Pharmacist”, it’s a humorous reminder that Boots is more than just a pharmaceutical retailer – its pharmacists can offer advice, diagnosis and treatment on a range of common health conditions. The aim of the campaign is long-term behaviour change.

Behaviour change is never easy, though. People don’t take kindly to being nagged or lectured about what they should do, and simple information can often bounce off unless it’s presented in an entertaining way. And as readers of our The Greenprint report on sustainability-driven messaging will know, a behaviour change needs to be presented as an easy step, not just a virtuous one.

That’s why Boots have taken a more entertaining direction with this ad. “You’re never too far from a Pharmacist” presents a series of short vignettes with people going about their day with minor ailments from sinusitis to UTIs. Each of them is surprised to see a Boots Pharmacist offering help, in a series of increasingly outlandish disguises and unexpected places from posing as a lampshade to climbing on the outside of an office window. It’s a quirky ad, but one that stays on the right side of funny too.

The result certainly makes viewers smile. On the Test Your Ad platform our second-by-second Trace tool shows rising happiness throughout the commercial, as viewers get used to the strange concept. That means it ends up with a strong 4.2-Star Rating, putting it in the top 1% of healthcare ads, and the top 10% for retail, an excellent result for a non-Christmas Boots ad. There’s also an extremely clear brand linkage, thanks to the Boots uniforms on show across the ad reinforcing the branding at every step.

So, it’s a win on the “make it entertaining” part of the behaviour change agenda. What about the “make it easy” element? The signs are good – the whole point of the ad, after all, is that Boots Pharmacies are never far away, and the ad makes it very clear that you can get a diagnosis and some medicine any time you pop out to the shops or leave the office. Simplicity is the key to sustainable change, and this is a great first step for Boots in a campaign which looks set to change the season of sniffles into a season of smiles.

[i] All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from research conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 2,001 Nationally representative UK respondents (Aged 16+) with min. 1,000 Parents/Grandparents. The data was collected between 01.08.2025 – 05.08.2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council. ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Somewhat agree’ answers combined.