Saatchi & Saatchi for Sanofi-Aventis's Ambien CR

SILENCE YOUR ROOSTER

Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Health + Wellness

BRAND Ambien CR CLIENT Sanofi-Aventis FROM LEFT: Andrew Curtis, copywriter; Jay Marrotte, art director

Ambien CR, the sleep medication that "helps you fall asleep fast and stay asleep" caught the eyes (and ears!) of consumers with, well, a rooster.

"The need for something that was symbolic came from the client," says Sergio Flores, associate creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare. "We thought it would be interesting to take something that represents morning—a rooster—and have it come in the middle of the night."

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A rooster (specially trained to stay up at night) assaults viewers with a series of antics—playing basketball, beating on drums, vacuuming—that gets consumers' attention by making them laugh. The 15-second spots, which mirror the myriad annoyances that keep people from falling or staying asleep, strike a personal chord: Whether it's worrying about a job, paying bills, etc., everyone has their own "rooster."

The spot teases consumers to visit Ambien CR's microsite, SilenceYourRooster.com. "We wanted to do it absurd, and blind enough so there'd be a better chance of getting people to go online," says Andrew Curtis, copywriter. "We wanted to create enough buzz and word of mouth to drive people to the branded microsite." In its first two weeks, the site received more than a million hits.