Buzz looked round the room. Head of creative Tamara Sownd-Bite was in tears, and even head of marketing Bill Shut was reaching for his hankie. The only person looking concerned was Peter Pill, head of PR for the National Pharmacy Voice Society. "Umm," began Peter, "I'm not quite sure what we're saying here?"

Tamara jumped to her feet. "Do you think this is easy?" she asked. "Trying to advertise pharmacy is like trying to advertise electricity. Everyone needs it, but no-one really understands it." "I understand electricity…" began Peter.

"Look, Pete," interrupted Bill. "This was not an easy brief. We dismissed a piece starring celebrities as too risky in case they're pulled in for some historic crime and you told us we can't put drugs or dispensing in an advert, so that doesn't leave much to work with."

"Yeah," chimed Tamara. "When I think of chemist shops, I think of coughs and colds – ill people with their snotty-nosed kids."

Peter sighed. "Pharmacy today is so much more than that. We want to show the future, how we can help with winter planning and reduce pressure on GPs with our services."

Bill jumped up "I've got it! An elderly granny looks anxiously at her granddaughter, who is racked with consumption. She opens her purse to find it empty – how can she get some treatment?

"As she reaches the GP surgery there's a queue of people out the door and into the street, but at the pharmacy she's provided with a soothing mixture for free through a minor ailment scheme. As she trudges back through the dark streets the pharmacist gives her a friendly wave – and it begins to snow."

"Oh," squealed Tamara, "that's simply perfect!"

More by Xrayser:

Hang on a minute, I'll get round to it

The secret to a calm and contented pharmacy

The shop windows to our soul

It was a tense meeting at advertising agency Branding Iron. After the success of its previous campaign for pharmacy, the agency had a new challenge.   Campaign manager Barry ‘Buzz' Words stood and cleared his throat. "Fellow image wranglers," he began, "we have to produce a Christmas ad for ‘Brand Pharmacy' and this is my vision.   "The scene opens with a small boy, his face pressed against a pharmacy window. Beside him is a puppy, with its paws pressed against the pharmacy window. As the camera pans back you see a newspaper seller, the headline says ‘War in the trenches continues into December' and you realise it's 1914. The little boy enters the pharmacy, picks up his puppy – which we now see isn't real but a stuffed toy – and asks to exchange it for some bandages.   "Cut to a soldier in the trenches opening a parcel from home containing the bandages, which he wraps around his knee before running into No Man's Land for the Christmas Day game of football. Cut back to the chemist shop – the pharmacist smiles through the shop window – and it begins to snow."
	Trying to advertise pharmacy is like trying to advertise electricity. Everyone needs it, but no-one really understands it