Gigil Philippines has created this new campaign for Lagundex, an emerging natural cough medicine brand made from lagundi leaves. As a brand aiming to break into the market, the new spot was designed to make noise. Medicines in the Philippines are usually endorsed by doctors. To out-expert the usual endorsers, they starred an underrated pop culture gem—Susan Africa. An actress known for her many ‘meek, sickly, coughing mother’ roles in soap operas. The film opens to a production set in the middle of a tele-drama shooting a scene, with Susan Africa wearing your run-of-the-mill house dress. While being asked by the director to cough, her house dress dramatically reveals into a gorgeous green gown. She names herself as the ‘Star for All Cough’ and proceeds to give a masterclass on the kinds of coughs and how the solution for these is Lagundex. The film paid homage to several ‘coughing tropes’ in Philippine cinema, with references for Filipino audiences to recognize.
