Seize the Night and Day: Examining Indorsia’s Insomnia Campaign Featuring Jennifer Aniston

It’s been a year since Indorsia Pharmaceuticals’ “Seize the Night and Day” insomnia awareness ad campaign featuring Jennifer Aniston first aired on TV, and the numbers are in. In 2022, Indorsia’s insomnia drug Quviviq (daridorexant) brought in a total of ₣6.5 million CHF (about $7 million USD). Though the drug — which was launched in the US in May 2022 and in parts of Europe in November — wasn’t the focus of the disease-awareness campaign, Indorsia was using the campaign to establish its reputation in the sleep aid space.

What is Seize the Night and Day?

Seize the Night and Day is a movement to help empower people from all walks of life who suffer from sleep deprivation and insomnia. This campaign seeks to promote healthy sleep habits through education, resources, support and direct action.

Aniston, the award-winning actor best known for her role in the sitcom “Friends,” is a spokesperson for Indorsia’s campaign. As an ambassador for Seize the Night and Day, Aniston has been using her platform to help spread awareness so that people can get the help they need to get the quality sleep they deserve. According to the Swiss pharma, they have formed a multi-year partnership with Aniston focused on sleep education.

Indorsia Pharmaceuticals is committed to helping those who suffer from insomnia and other sleep-related conditions. Through Seize the Night and Day, Indorsia seeks to raise awareness about the growing problem of insomnia in our society, as well as promote good sleep hygiene practices. Their campaign is focused on educating both patients and healthcare providers.

Seize the Night and Day Commercial

The 30-second Seize the Night and Day commercial opens with Aniston lying in bed and struggling to fall asleep. Her mind wanders from topic to topic as she steals glances at the digital alarm clock on her nightstand. Fifteen seconds into the ad — with 4am displayed on the clock — she becomes so frustrated with her inability to drift off that she sits up in bed and exclaims, “Are you kidding me?!” and puts a pillow over her face.

She wakes up when her alarm goes off and comes face-to-face with another version of herself sitting on a couch in her bedroom. “Better days start with better nights,” says this daytime version of Aniston. “Seems like a good time to find out about both.”

After this exchange, the ad takes a comical turn with nighttime Aniston asking, “Why are you talking like that? Is this an ad?” The commercial ends with the campaign’s slogan — Seize the Night & Day — and directs viewers to the associated website.

The Seize the Night and Day commercial began airing on January 17, 2022, with iSpot.tv estimating Indorsia spent $6.2 million on the campaign. However, the company last aired the ad on May 2, 2022, the same day they announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Quviviq.

Since then, the company has nabbed other celebrities to promote the drug. In a TV ad called “Taye Diggs Takes on His Insomnia,” the actor best known for his role in the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice shares his own sleep troubles and how insomnia impacts his days and nights, in a nod to the brands original Seize the Night and Day commercial. Another spot — “Insomnia Thoughts” — features professional skier Lindsey Vonn who details how her restless mind keeps her up at night since she retired from the sport.

What Product is Seize the Night and Day Promoting?

Quviviq is an FDA-approved prescription medicine that helps treat insomnia in adults, with a low risk of dependence and side effects. It’s also Indorsia’s first pharmaceutical product to be commercialized in the US.

Insomnia is a common disorder that affects around 25 million adults in the US alone. Symptoms of insomnia include difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early. It can lead to daytime drowsiness, irritability and lack of concentration. According to a 2020 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 8.4 percent of adults in the US use some form of prescription sleep medication to help them get their rest most nights.

The global insomnia market was worth an estimated $5.1 billion in 2022. In light of the market size for this indication, Quviviq’s initial sales numbers may seem underwhelming. But Indorsia explains that the net sales “do not reflect the volume as broad commercial coverage is under negotiation.” This year, the company hopes to expand payer coverage of the drug to boost patient access.

Quviviq belongs to a new class of drugs known as dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) which target overactive wakefulness in insomnia associated with orexins, neuropeptides involved in the sleep/wakefulness cycle. Merck’s Belsomra (suvorexant) and Eisai’s Dayvigo (lemborexant) are also DORA drugs. Like other prescription sleep aids, Quviviq also carries the risk of abuse and dependence and is a Schedule IV controlled substance.

Other treatments for insomnia include benzodiazepines like Ativan (lorazepam), Valium (diazepam) and Xanax (alprazolam), and sedatives/hypnotics such as Ambien (zolpidem) and Lunesta (eszopiclone); however, pharmacological therapies are often not first-line treatments because of their risk of dependency. Doctors often recommend focusing on improving sleep hygiene first by establishing a regular bedtime, reducing consumption of coffee and other stimulants and limiting screen time before bed.

Other Jennifer Aniston Commercials

Jennifer Aniston has been a part of many high-profile ad campaigns in her career, from cosmetics and fashion lines to health and wellness initiatives. Seize the Night and Day is just one of her latest campaigns that focuses on addressing insomnia.

In 2018, Jennifer Aniston worked with specialty pharma Shire — now part of Takeda — on a dry eye disease awareness campaign dubbed, “Eyelove.” Their dry-eye drug Xiidra (lifitegrast), which has since been sold to Novartis, brought in $468 million in sales in 2021 compared with its major competitor AbbVie’s Restasis (cyclosporine) which earned $1.2 billion during the same period.

Outside of pharma marketing, Aniston can be seen in ads for skincare brand Aveeno and collagen supplement company Vital Proteins. In the past month, over 230,000 airings of commercials featuring Aniston have appeared on devices across the US.