People would rather talk about their sex lives than talk about their bowel health. So to get people to open up about a topic they avoid at all cost, we had to start the conversation ourselves…in public. Thus, Toilet Talk was born. We asked people to sit on a toilet and answer a few questions about their poop. Once people got over the initial shock of sitting on a toilet in public, answering simple questions about their bowel health with a stranger wasn’t such a big deal. This, in turn, helped people realize that this conversation would be just as easy, if not easier, to have with their doctor in private.

We took a man-on-the-street approach, setting up two toilets face-to-face on the Santa Monica Pier, inviting passersby to sit and answer simple questions about their poop—we filmed the entire event and housed it on our Toilet Talk microsite.

The campaign further empowered patients to speak with their doctors by presenting them with an interactive questionnaire on the microsite. With each answer chosen, a unique response and corresponding video clip from our host would play. For every completed questionnaire, Allergan donated $1 to the AGA Research Foundation to support digestive disease research.

Toilet Talk was amplified with a video of celebrity TV host Wendy Williams encouraging people to get talking about their bowel health. The Wendy Williams video ran on Facebook and YouTube.

In addition, the campaign spread through different channels including our Facebook page, targeted Facebook ads, and educational in-office materials at doctors’ offices

We increased patients’ ability to initiate conversations with their doctors about their bowel health. These conversations became the critical first step in the road to finding treatment.

Within the first week of launch, Toilet Talk generated over 89 million impressions. The hashtags #ToiletTalk, #AboutYourGut and #IBSAwarenessMonth, along with participants’ channels, generated an estimated 1,609,154 impressions. With over 6,713 total engagements with related social posts, over 12% of total comments have come from individuals self-identifying as IBS sufferers. Media coverage was seen on E! News, US Weekly, Aol.com, HuffingtonPost.com, Spry Living, Bustle.com, and Tenemos Que Hablar. Our press release reached almost 88 million impressions.