Driving change through our purposeful brands

Our cold and flu medicine, Theraflu, exists to get people back up and running after an unexpected illness. Even though no one likes to be stuck in bed with a cold or the flu, we know how important rest is to recovery and for keeping others safe.

That’s why when Theraflu’s Temperature Check survey of 2,000 American workers found many are facing financial and logistical barriers to taking a recovery day – with 68% of American workers reporting they can’t afford to take a sick day – they decided to launch an initiative aimed at keeping more people flu safe¹.

Launching the Rest & Recover Fund in conjunction with the Good+Foundation, Theraflu's $150,000 microgrant programme helped to cover lost wages from 1,000 unpaid sick days across the United States in 2021. Award-winning poet and activist, Suzen Baraka, wrote and performed a poem that honoured those who struggle with access to rest, raising awareness of the issue².

Also hard at work is Otrivin. As a nasal spray that helps people breathe better, Otrivin is working to raise awareness of the impact air pollution has on health. It’s an important topic highlighted by The World Health Organisation, which estimates that 93% of children are breathing polluted air that exceeds safe limits every day³.

Otrivin launched the Actions to Breathe Cleaner programme at COP26 to raise awareness of the links between air pollution, climate change and health using a novel educational exhibit, the Air Bubble. 

The Actions to Breathe Cleaner schools programme also teaches young people about the everyday actions they can take to minimise the health impacts of air pollution.

In India, the programme has provided 10,000 ‘pollution capture pencils’ to school children. The core of the pencils was made by mixing graphite with residue collected from twenty-two air purifies installed by Otrivin at three schools with the poorest air quality in Bengaluru.