Dramamine, the #1 anti-nausea brand in the US, is so effective at preventing nausea that it ended the need for barf bags. Because of this, Dramamine set out to pay tribute to the very thing it killed. “The Last Barf Bag” is an immersive, highly visible campaign that demonstrates the brand’s impact. A pop-up museum exhibit showcased vintage barf bags and their collectors, premiering a documentary that explores the interesting history of barf bags and their quirky collectors. It was amplified by classic movie posters around the city that drove people to the event and promoted the film.

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.

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.

There is something inherently funny when a brand engages with a group of people who may not be so crazy about the brand. It’s bold, unexpected and yields a refreshing and surprising level of candor. In addition, barf bag collectors are such an interesting group of quirky characters that simply letting them talk about their passion was a rich source of comedy. Passionate subcultures are a key part of great American mockumentaries like Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman—but in our film, the real world proved stranger than anything we could script. Similarly, the interviews in the Dramamine headquarters are reminiscent in tone of The Office and Parks and Recreation, with all their inherent corporate quirks and foibles on display. Finally, the resolution of this tension between brand and collectors is satisfying and humorous, with one man’s collection finding an unexpected new home.