Manila, Philippines – Around 87% of workers in the Philippines suffer from job-related stress—11% higher than the global average. And the toll goes beyond the mental. Stress drains key nutrients, weakens the body, and slowly wears you down.
To cut through to these overworked Filipinos, GIGIL ditched tired before-and-afters for a jarring metaphor that visualises stress: it doesn’t just exhaust you—it breaks you apart.
The film, done for the multivitamin brand Stresstabs, follows Jemerlyn, an office worker whose body falls apart from stress until only one arm remains. That arm battles through office chaos, crowded commutes, and exhaustion—until Stresstabs restores the vitamins she’s lost, making her whole again by morning.
In this exclusive interview for MARKETECH APAC, we recently spoke with the teams at GIGIL, as well as the local team for Haleon to learn more on their thoughts creating this campaign, and why healthcare brands should break away from the traditional format of ‘pharma ads’ and focus on the brand’s benefits speak truly to consumers–while also keeping them in check through wit and humour.
Why the wittier route mattered
For Chio Cebrero, wellness marketing manager at Haleon, the approach for this ad not only connected naturally with the audience but also ensured that the brand remained relatable and credible while standing out in a crowded space.
“Stresstabs addresses a very real and pressing concern among Filipino working adults today: the effects of stress on one’s body. Rather than leaning into the doom and gloom of how stressful modern life is, it was necessary – and very Filipino – to use humour to dramatise the effects of stress on one’s body,” Chio said.
Meanwhile, Dani Rodelas, senior digital marketing manager at Haleon, highlighted that the challenge in executing a digital campaign like this was all about coming up with an idea that stood out in an environment defined by speed and saturation.
“We saw an opportunity to use wit and humour, not only because it’s culturally relevant to Filipinos, but because it’s a proven way to stop thumbs mid-scroll. This tonality allows us to dramatise the effects of stress in a way that’s entertaining, memorable, and still credible—ensuring the message lands without losing the science behind it,” Dani stated.
Speaking of directly relating it to Filipino audiences, Reiner Locsin, brand manager at Haleon noted that by drawing on a distinctly Filipino sense of humour and grounding it in cultural insight, the campaign was able to communicate an often-overlooked fact—that stress depletes the body’s nutrients, and that lifestyle adjustments alone may not be enough.
“Why would a stressed Filipino watch something that will make them more stressed?” It has been the question that ultimately led to this route of Stresstabs’ delivering its key message through this ad using humour and dramatisation as they escape the harsh realities of stress and what it does to one’s body,” he said.
Understanding the creative process
For Chio, choosing GIGIL as the creative partner for this campaign stemmed from the need for an agency that recognised how brand storytelling has evolved, and how relevance today depends on narratives that strike a genuine chord with consumers.
“The creative process started with a deep understanding of our consumer, where we sought to understand the very real effects that stress causes on them. We then tasked GIGIL to create a campaign that elaborates on this tension, but also one that positions Stresstabs as something that our consumers can take to help combat these effects of stress on their bodies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dani stated that as the campaign expanded into digital, the priority was to find a partner who could translate the brand’s core message—that stress depletes nutrients while Stresstabs helps restore them—into content designed to capture attention quickly in an online space.
This then led to the collaboration with GIGIL, whom they described as an agency attuned to the demands of digital storytelling where entertainment and clarity must go hand in hand.
“We started with a deep dive into our audience’s realities, then worked with GIGIL to build a campaign that amplifies that tension but wraps it in a creative, shareable execution. The vision is a film that’s not just watched—it’s remembered, talked about, and shared online,” Dani said.
Furthermore, Reiner commented that the search for a creative partner centred on finding an agency that could genuinely immerse itself in Filipino experiences and translate those insights into work that felt both original and impactful.
And for the Haleon team, GIGIL was seen as the right fit to tell the kind of brand story that could stand out amid advertising clutter and strengthen consumer connection more effectively than past campaigns.
“While it was common, mining a deeper psyche was the crucial milestone we had cracked which we then asked GIGIL to dramatise and bring out the tension, ultimately leading to stronger conviction on Stresstabs’ role in addressing the effects of stress. We allowed ourselves to be brave enough to execute a different ad, and GIGIL helped us pave that way to drive talkability and virality for the brand,” Reiner said.
Blending ‘absurdity’ with local relevance
Meanwhile, Jillian Librodo, associate creative director at GIGIL, explained that while absurdity is often dismissed as a tactic for attention, it can sometimes reveal truths more effectively than realism. In the case for this campaign, When Stresstabs presented the brief, the team explored how to visually capture the exhaustion Filipinos feel after long hours of work.
“When Stresstabs gave us the brief, the team explored, “What do Filipinos see themselves as after a long day and night’s work?” But as one of the most stressed workers in the world, there’s not an amount of eyebags and pale skin can capture the way it feels. Our team figured that showing an employee’s hand, stumbling its way home, reflected the truth in a way reality couldn’t. And people responded because it captured how they really felt on the everyday,” Jillian commented.
Daryl Camit, senior copywriter at GIGIL, also echoed similar sentiments, stating, “We’re already living in absurdity; packed into little cubes we call offices, then crammed into longer cubes we call trains or jeepneys. All we did was show it as it truly feels. The humour lands because it’s not made up, it’s the everyday madness we’ve all signed up for.”
However, a question remains: how were they able to blend humour in an ad that would otherwise be commonly perceived as merely factual for many occasions? For that, Chloe Adarayan, account director at GIGIL stated that the concept for the film was anchored on a simple, universal truth: stress often leaves people feeling utterly drained. In the Filipino context, this is captured in the familiar phrase “ubos na ubos na ko” (vernacular for ‘I am so drained fully’).
She then added that by weaving this everyday expression into the narrative, the film carried an authenticity that made it instantly relatable.
“At the same time, we made sure the message stayed factual by showing stress not just as a mental or emotional state, but also as something that affects the body — and can be addressed through proper supplementation (and lifestyle changes). This dual perspective gave the brand credibility, while also carving out a space it could uniquely own in the conversation about stress,” she concluded.
