How Dramamine and FCB killed the barf bag and owned nausea

Turning nausea into narrative

FCB’s creative leap was to treat the campaign not as advertising, but as entertainment. The film, shot in a documentary style, follows the history of the humble barf bag, from its post-war airline heyday to its slow extinction. The narrative unfolds like a true-crime story, except the “killer” is a motion sickness brand.

According to Kristin Oberg, VP of strategic services and awards at FCB, the process was about trusting intuition more than strict planning. “It wasn’t about designing the story,” she says, “it was about following it.” That mindset led to a more authentic piece of content than a storyboard ever could.

To support the film, the team created a museum exhibit honoring the fallen industry, complete with relics and artifacts. The combination of humor and sincerity gave the campaign a cultural edge, balancing nostalgia with curiosity and clever self-awareness.

A risk worth taking

Selling a concept like this to a heritage brand required the same creative courage that built it. Instead of leading with a traditional media plan, FCB pitched an attitude. Dramamine did not need to shout over competitors; it needed to own the space it had created.

Oberg says the goal was to remind the client that their brand already had credibility beyond the medicine cabinet. “We showed that the brand already carried cultural clout,” she explains. “It wasn’t about asking them to take a leap of faith. It was about proving that Dramamine already shaped the category.”

The team relied mostly on earned reach and organic conversation. There was no need for spectacle because the concept itself was enough to make people talk. By using the language of culture instead of category jargon, Dramamine reached a younger audience without spending like its rivals.

Results that stuck

The Last Barf Bag hit a nerve. The campaign drove 53% faster sales growth than the category and boosted Amazon sales by 24% in the three months following launch. More importantly, it repositioned Dramamine from a product that treats nausea to a cultural icon that defines it.

As viewers shared clips and commented online, the story became shorthand for Dramamine’s dominance. The brand had moved from functional relevance to cultural recognition, no longer competing with other motion sickness brands but taking on nausea itself.

For Oberg, the campaign reinforced the belief that cultural participation beats traditional advertising. “When your brand intersects with culture in an authentic way, you don’t have to amplify it,” she says. “People do it for you.”

Dramamine and FCB will be celebrated as one of The Ad Club NY’s Brave Brands for 2025 during Advertising Week New York.