Asking For A Friend - Grilling & Fixing | Clapboard Ad Archive

Asking For A Friend - Grilling, Asking For A Friend - Fixing

Description

"Asking For A Friend - Grilling" and "Asking For A Friend - Fixing" were published in the United States in June 2018. The campaign was created for the brand Roman by the ad agency Circus Maximus. This Film medium campaign is related to the Health industry and consists of 2 media assets. The “Grilling” video was released on June 5, 2018, featuring a commercial where the protagonist asks for advice on various health topics while grilling, focusing on the brand's products and services. The second video, "Fixing", showcases a similar concept but in a different setting where the protagonist seeks help while fixing something, highlighting the brand's commitment to providing solutions to health issues. The messaging is delivered in a conversational and relatable tone as if the protagonist is speaking directly to the viewer, reinforcing the notion of seeking help and advice for health concerns. The campaign was crafted in English to ensure clear communication with the target audience. The visuals and storytelling in both videos are engaging and informative, serving to capture the audience's attention and create brand awareness. The campaign aims to position Roman as a trusted partner in addressing health needs and promoting overall well-being."

Credits

Client

Roman

Agency

Circus Maximus

Chief Creative Officer

Ryan Kutscher

Creative Director

Scott Linnen, Pat Horn

Copywriter

Erik Poh

Producer

Paul Sutton, Rael Kenny, William Cubbon, Christian Heuer, Colleen O’Donnell

Account Management

Keith Jackson

Director

Mike Bernstein

Crew

Kevin Kinskey

Cinematographer

Yuki Noguchi

Pd

Kendall Long

Editor

Marty Cramer

Colorist

Kinan Chabani

Post Production

More like this

Wedding Joy - Physicians Mutual | Clapboard Ad Archive

The Wedding Joy campaign by Physicians Mutual, developed in collaboration with Intermark, effectively highlights the brand's health, life, and retirement insurance products through the lens of significant family moments, specifically weddings. This creative approach draws a thoughtful parallel between the meticulous planning required for both weddings and retirements, positioning Physicians Mutual as a reliable partner in navigating these pivotal life transitions. Featuring actor and comedian John Michael Higgins as a charismatic wedding planner, the ad employs humor and warmth to engage viewers, showcasing Higgins coaching a nervous father of the bride through his wedding speech. The narrative evolves to a celebratory dance floor scene where the father expresses his gratitude for the retirement support provided by Physicians Mutual, culminating in a lively display of joy as he dons a sequined suit and breaks into dance. This portrayal reinforces the message that Physicians Mutual is dedicated to helping customers find the right coverage to enjoy their retirement years. The campaign's strategic media placement across national cable networks like Hallmark Channel, HGTV, and The Weather Channel, alongside social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, effectively targets older adults who are approaching retirement. By featuring both 30- and 15-second ad cuts, the campaign ensures adaptability and reach, while leveraging Higgins' established comedic persona to enhance brand recall. Clapboard rates this campaign 63/100. This campaign exemplifies how insurance brands can effectively utilize humor and relatable scenarios to foster a deeper emotional connection with their audience.

Campaign Proposition

The Roman 'Asking For A Friend - Grilling, Asking For A Friend - Fixing' campaign, launched in the US in June 2018, aims to position the brand as a trusted provider of health solutions. The campaign taps into the healthcare industry by offering a narrative approach to addressing sensitive health issues, targeting a specific audience who may be hesitant to seek help. By using a relatable and conversational tone, the campaign seeks to connect with viewers on a personal level, making them feel comfortable and understood. Through this strategy, Roman is able to convey the message that they are there to support individuals in need of health solutions, ultimately positioning themselves as a caring and reliable partner in healthcare.

Creative Device

FORMAT#5 EXEMPLARY STORY — Tells a story where the product plays a vital role in the plot or resolution. The 'Asking For A Friend - Grilling, Asking For A Friend - Fixing' campaign for Roman falls under the Exemplary Story format as it tells a narrative where the product is central to the story. By showcasing how Roman can help with health issues in a relatable context, the campaign effectively conveys the benefits of the brand to the audience through a compelling storyline. ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats

Competitive Planks

Hims – Hims caters to men's health products and services, providing a more modern and holistic approach to addressing issues such as hair loss, erectile dysfunction, and skincare. They focus on being a one-stop shop for men's wellness needs, offering convenience and discretion for their customers.

Lemonaid Health – Lemonaid Health differentiates itself by providing online telemedicine services for a wide range of health issues, including birth control, erectile dysfunction, and primary care. They emphasize convenience, affordability, and accessibility, appealing to consumers who prefer virtual healthcare options.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and BBDO redefined recognition in pediatric healthcare marketing with the St. Jude Hall of Heroes, an integrated campaign launched in the United States in 2019 that harnessed virtual reality technology to honor the relentless bravery of children battling cancer. In the highly competitive market category of healthcare and public interest, St. Jude eschewed conventional narrative arcs and testimonial-driven appeals, instead inviting supporters to step inside a digital hall where evocative 3D statues stand as monumental metaphors for the heroism of individual young patients. Each statue, custom crafted in partnership with 3D artists, powerfully symbolizes not only the personal battles of these children but also the universal struggle against pediatric cancer, breaking through the barrier of anonymity that often obscures patient stories. The campaign’s use of Oculus Quest VR delivers on the promise of immersive storytelling, allowing visitors to navigate the Hall of Heroes at their own pace and explore deeply personal narratives that reinforce both empathy and action among donors, advocates, and the broader public. By transforming patient experiences into larger-than-life visual tributes never before possible in a real-world context, St. Jude positions its mission as both urgent and hopeful—an approach that sits squarely in Clapboard’s FORMAT#9—Symbolize the Benefit taxonomy, where exaggerated visuals become vessels for a brand’s core purpose and emotional impact. The Hall of Heroes tactic masterfully blends healthcare’s demand for authenticity with the emotional resonance of artistic commemoration, further differentiating St. Jude’s brand positioning against peers who rely on institutional authority or scientific achievement as primary signals of worth. This campaign is a case study in the power of contemporary creative strategy, demonstrating how non-profit organizations can leverage emerging technologies to foster community, deepen experiential engagement, and elevate the intangible traits—like courage, resilience, and hope—that define their purpose. The campaign earns 82/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As virtual reality continues to shift the canvas for cause-based communication, St. Jude Hall of Heroes signals to the industry that immersive symbolism can deliver both recognition and relevance in a category so often constrained by clinical narratives.

Good Like That - CG Insurance | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Good Like That - CG Insurance | Clapboard Ad Archive

Good Like That, the brand campaign launched in 2022 by Chemistry for CG Insurance, repositions the insurance provider within the US healthcare landscape as a standard-bearer for customer-first values, aiming squarely at industry skepticism with a disarmingly simple creative device: the office lunch thief. This idea is articulated in the campaign’s initial film, Feast, which bypasses insurance clichés and product demonstrations in favor of a symbolic, universally relatable scenario—a colleague’s unmolested lunch in the break room—representing the kind of integrity and reliability CG aims to deliver. This approach, which Clapboard’s taxonomy situates as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, sidesteps literal depictions of coverage woes or insurance mishaps, instead framing customer frustration through everyday analogy to make CG’s position clear: unlike competitors who might quietly take what isn’t theirs, CG’s ethos revolves around doing right by the customer with transparency and consistency. Chemistry’s strategic choice to focus on visual storytelling and broad, inclusive scenarios allows the message to resonate across the US’s diverse cultural backdrop, steering away from narrowly targeted humor or surface-level identity cues and instead tapping into a common behavioral truth. The follow-up film in the campaign, Unexpected In-laws, carries forward this narrative momentum, cementing CG Insurance’s empathetic and customer-respecting positioning through familiar, wordlessly expressive moments. In a marketplace where major health insurers often default to rational product messaging or community health credentials, CG Insurance’s campaign grounds trust in the emotional texture of everyday decency—both distinct and ownable within a crowded, often impersonal category. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. At a time when brand differentiation in health insurance hinges as much on the experience of empathy as on policy details, Good Like That exemplifies how creative metaphors and visual narrative can signal character and humanity where it matters most.

A Beautiful Sight - VABYSMO | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

A Beautiful Sight - VABYSMO | Clapboard Ad Archive

A Beautiful Sight from VABYSMO, created by Grey Health for the US healthcare market in 2024, resets the standard for pharmaceutical storytelling with an animated short film that centers on the power and vulnerability of vision across generations. Crafted for Mother’s Day and conceived as a narrative tribute to mothers and the retina specialists tasked with safeguarding their sight, the campaign charts the intertwined journeys of a mother battling wet age-related macular degeneration and her son, who ultimately becomes her retina specialist—a first-person, emotionally anchored story that underscores the human stakes of vision loss. By forgoing the formulaic clinical cues typical of pharma advertising, the film positions VABYSMO not simply as a treatment but as a deeply trusted choice, thematically validated by the insight that 95 percent of retina specialists would recommend it for their own loved ones. The creative approach leverages first-person point of view and 40 years of narrative span, with advanced facial mapping and richly detailed 3D environments produced by Roof Studios and scored by a composer with major feature film acclaim, using every tool of animation to maximize emotional accessibility and reader empathy. The campaign speaks directly to three distinct but interdependent audiences—patients confronting diagnosis, caregivers supporting loved ones, and retina specialists themselves—by rooting the value proposition not in efficacy claims alone but in the bonds of care, responsibility, and community, crystallized in a moment where the son’s expertise and the product’s utility converge to preserve the mother’s world. Deliberately moving away from the well-trod path of lifestyle montages and efficacy statements, Grey Health’s work here exemplifies what Clapboard’s taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#5—Exemplary Story—embedding VABYSMO as a vital actor within a transformative, personal story rather than an external, interchangeable remedy. This narrative is buttressed by high production values and a visual grammar that navigates four decades with clarity, accessibility, and an overt sense of craft, ultimately turning a pharmaceutical intervention into an affirmation of trust and intergenerational connection. As a point of market differentiation, the campaign situates VABYSMO alongside legacy and next-generation wet AMD treatments, but uniquely humanizes its promise by demonstrating the literal and figurative vision that anchors families and the specialists who serve them. Clapboard rates this 69/100. In an industry often mired in commoditized messaging, this campaign matters because it asserts that emotional resonance and lived experience can and should dictate healthcare brand narratives when the stakes are as personal as sight itself.

Make us part of your story - Jennifer - Chartwell Retirement Residences | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Make us part of your story - Jennifer - Chartwell Retirement Residences | Clapboard Ad Archive

Chartwell Retirement Residences and agency Alfred bring the vitality of senior living to the fore with Make us part of your story – Jennifer, a 2014 campaign for the Canadian market that pivots away from conventional, problem-solution narratives towards candid, aspirational portraiture. Anchored in the healthcare sector yet resoundingly personal in tone, the film introduces viewers to Jennifer, a proudly sociable Chartwell resident whose days are vividly defined by sewing, calling Bingo numbers, lively walks with her dog Lucy, and impromptu spins around the city in her Kia Soul. The campaign is delivered with intimacy and warmth, offering a French-language window into Jennifer’s authentically active daily routine, and inviting viewers to recognize themselves or loved ones in her independent, connected lifestyle. This approach is emblematic of what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#10—Associated User Imagery, leveraging the lived experience of a real resident to embody Chartwell’s value proposition and align the brand with a sense of empowerment, agency, and joy in later life. By resisting dramatized arcs or hyperbolic claims, the campaign places Jennifer at the creative center, her dynamic presence elevating Chartwell beyond mere facilities management to the role of a community enabler—where stories are shared rather than sold. Embedded digital calls-to-action round out the strategy, prompting deeper engagement through a suite of additional resident and staff stories on Chartwell’s website, reinforcing the concept of collective belonging and trust. The single-media focus ensures clarity and coherence; the uncluttered execution magnifies Jennifer’s relatability and redefines retirement not as a monolith but as an open-ended narrative full of possibility. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. In choosing to place authentic, user-driven storytelling front and center, this campaign signals a renewed direction for the professional services market where brand credibility is built not on abstract promises but on lived, relatable experiences.