After several months of running the direct-to-consumer “Soft Landing” campaign for its Exparel pain medication via TV, web and social media spots, Pacira BioSciences has taken the marketing initiative from digital to IRL.
Late last year, Pacira hosted an event at the Color Factory interactive art museum in New York City aimed at educating families about the benefits of its nonopioid pain relief med, which is approved in postsurgical patients as young as 6.
The event featured kid-friendly and educational activities like crafts, photo opportunities and access to the museum’s giant ball pit—all meant to share or symbolize the campaign’s overarching message that Exparel offers a “gentler” recovery period after surgery. One interactive station, for example, interspersed the museum’s wall of lesser-known color names with imagery from the “Soft Landing” campaign and corresponding myths and facts about Exparel.
The day’s schedule also included conversations in which orthopedic surgeon Paul Sethi, M.D., and OB-GYN Nicole Sparks, M.D., encouraged parents to discuss non-opioid pain management options with healthcare teams if their children ever need surgery.
The offline event brought the online “Soft Landing” campaign to life “in a uniquely powerful way,” Brendan Teehan, Pacira’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement to Fierce Pharma Marketing.
“By transforming education into an interactive, family-friendly environment, we were able to meet parents, key healthcare decision-makers, exactly where they are,” Teehan said. “Attendees explored the brighter side of recovery and learned firsthand how Exparel can support a gentler healing experience while reducing or, in many cases, eliminating the need for opioids.”
He added, “The enthusiasm and engagement expressed by our attendees during the event reaffirms our belief that every family deserves a soft landing after surgery, and we’re proud to help make that possible.”
The “Soft Landing” campaign initially launched in June 2025 and comprises a trio of TV spots, as well as web and social content.
The initiative’s “dreamlike visuals,” as Teehan described them, are dotted with fluffy clouds and feature animated characters floating down via parachute onto comfortable couches and chairs to join their friends and family after surgery. The imagery is meant to convey “a calmer, more reassuring and better-informed recovery journey, highlighting the promise of a gentler transition back to the daily life our patients deserve,” he told Fierce.
Pacira began rolling out the campaign last summer “to help patients and families understand they have a critical say in their surgical pain management plan,” per the commercial chief.
“We hear, all too often, that patients are so focused on the surgery itself that they either forget, or are too afraid, to ask their doctors about what happens afterwards,” Teehan continued. “Our focus is on helping them approach postsurgical recovery with greater comfort, clarity and confidence — knowing that terrific nonopioid pain management options are available to them.”