Why Haleon turned a downtown Toronto house into an everyday health hub

From the outside, it looks like any other home on a quiet, residential street in downtown Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood—but inside it offers a unique, interactive experience. 

Room by room, visitors can explore how Haleon Canada’s stable of brands, including Advil, Voltaren, Centrum, Sensodyne and Buckely’s, fit into their everyday lives and contribute to their overall health and wellness.

In the kitchen, for example, a noodle and iodine demonstration shows how Centrum daily vitamins help neutralize free radicals that cause stress and aging, restoring the iodine-stained noodles back to their natural colour.

In an upstairs’ washroom, coffee-stained eggshells are used to demonstrate how Sensoydne Clinical White Toothpaste can help lift stains. And in the at-home office, Voltaren and Advil products to help ease the aches and pains that come from sitting at a desk all day.

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Sarey Wulf, head of corporate affairs for Haleon Canada, tells Canadian Grocer that the idea behind the two-day event, "Haleon Health House," which opens to the public on Friday (Oct. 23), is to arm consumers with information and education and eliminate shelf-anxiety.

“There’s a lot of information. You don’t know which treatment options may be suited for you or your symptoms,” she says. “We always love to have an opportunity to engage with consumers, to explain the science behind the product or to explain why the product is different and what benefits the product brings.”

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While consumers are well acquainted with the company’s product family, they’re less familiar with Haleon itself. The brand activation helps bridge any gap between the two.

“Everybody knows our products; they’re in our medicine cabinets. They have been for decades, but nobody really knows what Haleon is,” she says. “So, it’s an opportunity to bring the house or brands into a house where people can engage and learn a little but also about our purpose.”