I appreciate reinvention as much as I do invention, so when I caught a glimpse of the newish Excedrin “Go” campaign (specifically the spot where wharfy roustabout Neptune battles a sea-churning headache), I cheered the departure from commercials past. Long gone are real folks hunched over real kitchen tables, gettin’ real ’bout heads achin’ — Boss Saatchi hoisted the headache experience into the realm of ferocious headache pain as sufferers know it: unreal.
Yeah, the commercial was a real humdinger.
I was hoping to share this Excedrin spot with you. I figured that, after viewing it, we might engage in some discourse about the evolution of brand messaging, the potency of traditional advertising in a world of 800 lb. viral guerillas, or the evidence that artistic, well produced commercials will, for another generation at least, stand on their own merit.
Yep, I was hoping to share this Excedrin spot with you, but I can’t.

You see, I can’t bring myself to hunt for it any more. Dozens of failed Google searches have left me enfeebled. Alternate hunts for the agency responsible (signs point to S&S) were imperfect, and Saatchi’s own site makes little use of a searchable portfolio. I recall no specific URL branding the spot, either (which would normally catch my eye). So while the brand message might have charged me to “Go”, I am, it seems, forced to stop.
By now, I needn’t bark that URLs (or some other path of action) are mandatory to encourage continued consumer conversation. But dagnabbit, if you’re an agency and you’ve just spent six months and $1.2 million on production and placement of a TV spot please be a lamb and post that MFer on YouTube.
Because all I’ve got to show for my efforts is a raging migraine headaaa…clever bastards!