Nurofen’s Innovative New Music Track Helps People Better Tolerate Pain

Music can help people better tolerate acute pain, according to a new experiment supported by pain experts Nurofen. The Tune Out Pain project, devised and developed in collaboration with McCann London, brought together the worlds of science and music to create a unique track which could be listened to when people are experiencing pain and will be launched during the current Pain Awareness Month.

Nurofen’s first-of-its-kind study partnered Dr Claire Howlin, Psychology Researcher, University College Dublin with music producer, Anatole, (aka Jonathan Baker) a conservatory-trained trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist to compose the track, All of Us.

Released today on Spotify, All of Us, was shown to reduce levels of pain intensity and unpleasantness in a way that was clinically and statistically significant. By applying instrumental and orchestral sounds, such as strings, pianos, bells, and minor vocal samples, the track elicits a sense of wonder and empowerment to inspire mental strength to help dissociate from pain.

To create the track’s art cover, McCann London collaborated with artist Nicholas Rougeux, who has translated sound into a visual language, using data visualisation. To create his visualisations, Rougeux alters the traditional representation of scale, typically noted by the different clefs on sheet music. Each individual instrument is represented by a different colour.

To support the track launch, the campaign will launch across Spotify, Facebook & YouTube. The aim of this initiative is to bring this specialist science into the mainstream, and start a conversation around alternative and holistic ways to help manage pain, during this September Pain Awareness Month.

Media was handled through Zenith, Digital is led through RB Studios, with PR delivered through Havas SO.

Sezi Unluturk, category manager at Nurofen said: “At Nurofen, we believe that pain should not hold people back from living their lives to the full. Nurofen are pioneers in pain management and committed to finding new solutions that go ‘beyond the pill’. Tune Out Pain was developed to help further scientific knowledge of new holistic pain management techniques that can complement existing pain-relieving medications. We encourage people to speak with their pharmacist or GP if they have concerns managing their acute pain.”

Sanjiv Mistry & Jamie Mietz, executive creative directors at McCann said: “Nurofen has always been relentlessly innovative in its product development. We’re really proud to be collaborating with them on creating unconventional services like this – a music track scientifically engineered to help with acute pain – all in a quest to help them find interesting and effective new ways to put people in charge of their pain management.”