Send Parasites Packing

Broadhead is making parasites surprisingly cute…? and officially unwelcome in a new campaign for Boehringer Ingelheim’s horse dewormers, Zimecterin and Zimecterin Gold. The agency reimagines worms as cute but dejected travelers getting the boot—complete with one-star parasite travel reviews and a horse owner travel giveaway—to inject humor into an otherwise clinical, lookalike category.
The work marks a strategic shift from the category’s conventional advertising, using character development, humor, and unexpected storytelling to stand out. With parasite personalities developed using anatomically accurate references and AI iteration, the final creative reflects technical rigor and a memorable visual approach. Broadhead, who has worked with Boehringer Ingelheim for 16 years, sees the campaign as a fresh approach to solving sameness in the category.
“At a time when horse owners are more value-conscious and increasingly relying on veterinary guidance to choose the right parasite coverage, a trusted brand like ours must work harder to differentiate ourselves from generic alternatives,” says Alison Richardson, Marketing Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim Equine. “‘Send Parasites Packing’ successfully sets us apart in a product category that is viewed as a commodity, and the originality of the campaign creates a platform that we can extend over multiple years.”
“This is one of my favorite projects because we got to turn something genuinely gross into something people can’t stop smiling at,” says Erin Slayton, Associate Creative Director at broadhead. “Equine deworming isn’t exactly a category people get excited about, which made it even more fun to find an unexpected way in. Our campaign centered on the worms, which Zimecterin controls, but doing a photoshoot for a worm wasn’t the move. To achieve our creative vision, we used Runway AI to generate the imagery and video assets, and I love where we arrived with these memorable characters that only AI could bring to life."
The campaign launches in late July across digital display media and social ads and channels, with social assets also being provided to veterinary and retail partners for product promotion. An accompanying travel giveaway will be promoted this Fall with the tagline "Parasites don't deserve paradise, but horse owners do."