For people on aspirin therapy, the wear and tear on the stomach can be tough. In fact, stomach-related complaints are the common reasons why aspirin therapy is ceased.

A local pharma company desired an unbranded campaign to educate the marketplace on the common issue mentioned above.

Tom Browne, VP and Creative Director at greyhealth group, the agency working on the campaign, reached out to photographer Paul Pugliese once the client approved the concept of images including people with a burning stomach.

A Burning Issue

Pugliese immediately turned to PXL.HOUSE for assistance on set in bringing the realistic depiction of a singed stomach to life, as well as the final retouching of all four images within the campaign.

“PXL.HOUSE is great to collaborate with on more challenging visual projects, such as this one,” Pugliese explained

A few days prior to the shoot PXL.HOUSE spent time testing the visual effects of burning a few different materials, including cardboard, fabric and some other test materials.

The fabric, although a closer match to what is actually shown as burned in the photo, ended up looking too messy and lacked depth when scaling up. The cardboard came out the best, providing good depth and a burn that could scale up and have details that looked appropriate for the final piece.

“PXL.HOUSE made the process for getting the stomach to be perfect look really easy," remarked Browne. “They always give a little extra, and that’s appreciated.”

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