Sweet Emotion

We all know by now that eating to overcome stress is a bad habit and that sugar isn’t good for us (right?) But it’s hard to resist a sweet treat on a grey day. That was m’s idea when they developed the Happy Pills concept. Why would a design agency develop the idea behind a candy store? Not quite sure, but they’ve done a great job. When they saw that the area where the shop was to open was a super touristy thoroughfare between Portal de L’Angel and the Cathedral where not many children passed, they knew the concept had to be aimed at adults. So, by combining fun design (had to do that, being in Barcelona) with great copy, and of course the candy, they came up with a retail concept that gets to you on lots of levels.

The candy is actually the same gummy bears, worms, hard candy, etc. that you find in most sweet shops here (although they did weed out things that were not aesthetically coherent with the concept,) but the packaging, in pharmacy-like bottles, fist aid kits and pill boxes with hot pink crosses and instructions to use for the treatment of such ailments as Mondays, the unbearable lightness of being, bad hair days, housing prices and Secret Santas with no imagination, among other quotidian bothers, turns a guilty pleasure into an ironic statement.

From comments in the blogsphere, it looks like people are champing at the bit to take this concept global – are you ready to be the first candystriper in your city?

Happy Pills:
carrer Arcs 6
tel 93 304 3097
happypills@ibc.com.es