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“Haleon’s mission is to deliver better everyday health with humanity, and my work is centred on ensuring that our brand communications are inclusive, accessible, and representative—because put simply, if people can’t understand our health information, we’re not doing our job.” – Diego Elias, Global Marketing Manager, Panadol
When Haleon spun off from GSK, its purpose was made clear: deliver better everyday health with humanity. That meant building a business that didn’t just sell consumer health products—but one that genuinely helped people understand and access the care they need. And to do that, Haleon had to address a long-standing issue in the healthcare space: inclusive communication.
As Chris Concerto, Global Partnerships Director, Haleon, explained: “We wanted to make healthcare more accessible, easy to understand and comprehend, and ensure that our messages and the voice of our brands are representative of the diverse range of audiences we serve.”
In consumer health, creative excellence comes with a unique responsibility. As Diego explains, “If 9 in 10 people struggle to understand health information, then even the most beautifully shot ad is meaningless if the message doesn’t land.”
Haleon recognized that legacy: a pharma heritage filled with legalese, medical jargon, and scripts that often confuse more than they clarify. With marketing teams producing thousands of creative assets globally, it became clear that inclusivity and comprehension weren’t just values—they were business-critical.
“It was really important for us to take a step back and assess how we were showing up with consumers,” Chris explains. “We produce so much content around the world, so it becomes incredibly challenging to gain an understanding of exactly what content is being delivered across different markets and brands.”
To begin addressing the gap, Haleon piloted a new initiative with one of its most iconic and widely used brands: Panadol. Present in more than 80 markets and suitable for 98% of the global population, Panadol is often the first thing people reach for when they feel pain—regardless of age, language, or background.
That ambition made Panadol the ideal brand to lead the launch of the Health Inclusivity Screener—a tool built in partnership with CreativeX to measure content across three dimensions: representation, readability, and accessibility.
“As a brand, we needed a better way to ensure that our messages weren’t just being seen but truly being understood,” Diego adds. “The screener gives us a tangible framework to do just that.”
Rolling out the screener wasn’t without its hurdles. One of the biggest? Language.
“Moving beyond English and the Latin alphabet into new languages and scripts raised all sorts of new questions,” Diego explains. “But being part of a truly global company meant we could tap into our local teams, learn from them, and build something that worked across markets.”
What started as a pilot is now expanding to other Haleon power brands, including Centrum, Voltaren, and Sensodyne.
The Health Inclusivity Screener leads with purpose, but more inclusive advertising has also been shown to impact business outcomes.
“Everything you do to improve inclusivity drives a positive return to the business,” Diego shares. “Purchase intent goes up. Differentiation goes up. Brand awareness goes up. That loop is self-fulfilling and will continue to grow.”
Research from MetrixLab revealed that more inclusive advertising not only performed better in terms of comprehension but also drove stronger performance across key metrics.
Chris explains, “We were able to validate that small changes help consumers better understand products and services and ultimately drive improvements in key performance metrics.”
For Haleon, the Health Inclusivity Screener isn’t just a retrospective tool, it’s a forward-facing strategy.
“At the moment, we have a yardstick for how inclusive our content is. But in the future, I’d love to use the tool to assess content before it goes live—and fix things before they break,” says Diego.
The vision is to continue scaling the tool across Haleon, tracking progress over time, and expanding access to other advertisers and industries.
“We’d love to bring the tool to all advertisers so that we’re collectively better serving consumers and helping them make more thoughtful and informed decisions about their health,” Chris adds.
The long-term ambition for Diego? “I hope we look back and see that we didn’t just launch great campaigns, but we made healthcare marketing more human, more equitable, and more effective at scale. That we left the industry better than we found it.”
What’s been just as transformative as the tool itself is the mindset shift it’s driven within the business.
“For everyone working on things like this—once you see it, you can’t unsee it,” Diego says. “A cog turns in your brain, and you become aware of it. It changes how you think about creative.”
And ultimately, that’s what Haleon is aiming for: not just better campaigns, but a better system. One that empowers more people to understand, trust, and act on the health information they’re given. As Diego concludes, “Making health information more inclusive is not a one-off campaign; it’s a systemic shift. And that’s exactly what excites us.”
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