Dramamine, the #1 anti-nausea brand in the US, is so effective at preventing nausea that it ended the need for barf bags. So Dramamine set out to pay tribute to the very thing it killed with a documentary feature short titled “The Last Barf Bag: A Tribute to a Cultural Icon.” The film explores every corner of the barf bag universe, from quirky collectors to flight attendants to real barf stories, entertaining and engaging people with our brand in a new way.

The barf bag, a plastic-lined air sickness bag, was invented in 1949 and since has been available on planes, trains, boats, busses, and cars to address the issue of motion sickness. But with the growth of Dramamine—the #1 anti-nausea brand in the US—barf bags have become far less necessary. However, they remain an important collectible and conversation starter to a subculture of collectors across the globe who celebrate their novelty, absurdity, and clever design.

The documentary opens on a snowy Alaskan landscape where barf bag collector Bruce Kelly is penning a letter to Dramamine headquarters. His letter suggests that Dramamine has been so effective that it’s caused the demise of barf bags. This kicks off the curious case of how the brand has made an entire industry and staple of American travel obsolete, and how that reality has affected a very specific group of people—dedicated barf bag collectors. We meet four collectors across the USA—in Alaska, Texas, California, and Maine—documenting their passion and showcasing their unique (and impressive) collections of bags from around the world. We also see the story unfolding at the Dramamine headquarters—the realization of the effect their success has had on the barf bag—which leads to the film’s optimistic conclusion, inspiring new reasons to use the bags that are far more useful than barf.

In 1949, Gilmore Schjeldahl invented barf bags for Northwest Orient Airlines. Oddly enough, in the exact same year, a genuine scientific and medicinal innovation emerged: Dramamine, an over-the-counter medication for nausea. As 2024 marked the joint 75th anniversary for both the brand and the barf bag, we couldn’t help but notice that Dramamine was thriving while barf bags were dying. Underused and underappreciated, barf bags—along with their admiring collectors, community and industry—fell victim to the success of the brand. That made us think: What if we reminded the world how effective Dramamine is by saying goodbye to the industry we are accidentally killing?

The Last Barf Bag earned over 660 million impressions in just three weeks, with paid media earning 3 million more impressions. Sales on Amazon are up 26% post-launch versus a year ago. The museum exhibit had over 200 attendees, ranging from media personalities to influencers capturing novel content to share with their following, and the documentary has been warmly received by audiences from news media and travel journalists to the collectors themselves. The ads promoting the campaign beat Meta benchmarks by 10,000%, and brand engagement increased by 23% vs pre-campaign. The documentary is now competing in the film festival circuit and has already been named a 2024 Official Selection at the prestigious Tribeca Festival. We are also receiving interest from airlines about including the documentary in their in-flight entertainment offering.