Happy Pills
An investor proposed setting up a shop in the narrowest venue we could imagine. Next to the Cathedral square, on Els Arcs street, between two large buildings, there was a small place available. A really small place. And our client had decided to open up a sweet shop. Fine. We went to the area for an on-site inspection. Much to our surprise and concern we found that in the surroundings there were no trace of any schools nearby with their hordes of certain candy consumers. We had tiny premises in a central spot, the aim of setting up a sweet shop, few children and lots of tourists.
What could we do?
Firstly we recomended our client to focus on candies and come up with a strong concept around candies (we convinced him to forget about softdrinks, chocolates, peanuts or chewing gums). And well, if we couldn’t sell sweets to children we would have to sell them to whomever walked by: adult Barcelona residents and tourists. For this we needed to make sweets interesting for adults. With this frame of mind, we came up with the fact, more or less proven by all, that eating something sweet entails a slight improvement in mood. In this light, sweets are small mouthfuls of happiness. And today mouthfuls of happiness are most necessary for such serious setbacks such as Sundays with no football or more trivial matters such as the unbearable lightness of being. Things being so, we needed a name: Happy Pills.
When it came time to put the idea into practice, we thought it was best to endow it with a “pharmaceutical” touch, so to speak, using vials we tend to associate with aspirin or vitamins.
When it came time to put the idea into practice, we thought it was best to endow it with a “pharmaceutical” touch, so to speak, using vials we tend to associate with aspirin or vitamins.
Indications for use:
Against Monday, the pineapple diet, Sundays without football, football on Sundays with the warming of the earth, washing machines that break without warning, gray days, the PMS, the pitopausia, square roots, the unbearable Lightness of Being, the curls rebels without a cause, the weatherman jinx, the keys are lost alone, the price of housing in general and in particular boredom.
Asides from the “Indications for Use” we invented the “Composition”: 3% Sky blue, 5% Lemon yellow, 2% Dirty joke, 4% Black humour, 7% Uncontrollable guffaw, 8% La vie en rose”, 2% Tickling, 7% Oranges from China, 1% Fine British humour, 2% Galician double entendre, 6% Andalusian accent, 9% Last-minute goal, 2% Dawn essence, 7% Ho ho ho, 3% Cotton candy, 2% Aches from laughing, 5% Some like it hot, 4% Rio de Janeiro, 3% Tijuana, 7% John Cleese excipient, 6% Bunch of daisies, 5% Mediterranean Siesta.
We thought it would be a good idea if each person decided which malady the wanted to fight and with what happy pills they would do it, which is why at the shop you take a vial and fill it up with the candies you prefer. After that, they seal the bottle with a tamper-proof cap and let you choose which label best suit your mood, in either Spanish or English.
Creative Direction: Marion Dönneweg, Merche Alcalá, Mireia Roda
Graphic Design: Marion Dönneweg, Mireia Roda
Interiorism: Merche Alcalá
Copywriting: Jorge Virgós
Production: Maria Tarrés
Graphic Design: Marion Dönneweg, Mireia Roda
Interiorism: Merche Alcalá
Copywriting: Jorge Virgós
Production: Maria Tarrés
