Robitussin Turns Its Cough Medicine Into a Hitman Named Robby Tussin

A cough with a trench coat and a vendetta. Robitussin, owned by Haleon, launched a new global platform called "Take Care of Your Cough," succeeding its previous "Find Your Voice" campaign, built around a character named Robby Tussin, a deadpan hitman who shows up whenever a cough becomes "unacceptable" and quietly takes care of it with a bottle of Robitussin instead of a weapon.

The work comes from Publicis LeONE, a bespoke Publicis Groupe team, and marks the first Robitussin work since Haleon consolidated its global creative business under Publicis Groupe in October 2025, which now leads Haleon's entire OTC portfolio. The underlying insight is a fair one: people expect instant resolution for nearly everything now, yet still shrug off a lingering cough as just something to live with. Robitussin is betting that framing the cough itself as the villain, rather than the symptom, gives it a sharper hook than the category's usual "relief" messaging.

The platform runs through the full 2026/2027 cold, cough, and flu season across national TV and streaming, online video, paid and organic social, and influencer content, with a retail and e-commerce extension planned. The creative slate includes four core spots (Kitchen, Restroom, Bedtime, and Nightsoothe), a set of :06 cutdowns, and a paid-social bit called "Robby Reviews Reviews," in which the character reads real Robitussin.com customer reviews as if they were written about him. An 18-creator influencer program rounds it out.

Karen Bouhadana, Senior Director of Respiratory at Haleon, kept the pitch simple: "Robitussin takes care of your cough, fast." Pete Johnson, Executive Creative Director at Publicis LeONE, was even more direct about the joke at the center of it all: "A lingering cough is annoying. Advertising about a lingering cough shouldn't be."

Source: Roastbrief

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →