You can't help but notice the Help Remedies line of over-the-counter medicines for its distinctive packaging. The New York-based brand's minimal, clean design hints at what's inside with an impression of the blister-pack, for instance, but it's the text that really sells what's inside.
Offering simple medicine for simple health issues, it strips away the complexities that typical medicinal packaging bombards patients with. Instead, each package bears a "Help, I..." line of text, such as "Help, I can't sleep" for a sleep aid, or "Help, I have a headache" for a package of acetaminophen.
The simplicity of the packaging matches the promise of the products, which feature no dyes, coatings, and aim to use only the main chemical needed to treat what the patient needs.
The brand — available on Virgin Airlines, hotels, in stores and online — aims to be environmentally friendly, with packaging using molded paper pulp and biodegradable plastic made primarily of corn. It's proof that environmentally friendly packaging can be engaging through clever designed. Although they use plastic to wrap the pills themselves, they are trying to find away to change that.
The sleep aid is particularly interesting, inspiring an entire section of its website called the “dream recommender.” The idea is to focus on encouraging dreams rather than focusing on not being able to sleep. The dream recommender contains videos of dreams formulated to what Is bothering the person who can’t sleep.
For example, there's a "dog dream" for people feeling constricted by rules and regulations, and a food dream for people with eating issues. There are nine dreams in all, and after seeing the dreams the user can recommend dreams to others via Facebook.
There's also a dream recorder app available in the iTunes store. It “uses state of the art technology to transform your earphones into suctioning devices that suck dream liquid out of your brain. This liquid is converted into sentences and placed directly onto your facebook or twitter account while you are still asleep.” Of course, it says it's best used in tandem their "Help I can't sleep" aid.
The website also features a user-generated section where visitors to the site can post something they need help with, and others can chime in. Or you can customize and purchase a t-shirt with your own "Help, I...." message and fill in your particular issue.
This is one brand that doesn't need help with branding. Find out more in Contagious magazine's interview with Help Remedies CEO Richard Fine:
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