Advertisers keep hoping that Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell will be delivered to your door from “Modern Family.”
The pair, currently featured in a non-traditional marketing pitch for pharmaceutical giant GSK, have reunited to make consumers more aware of the risks of meningitis in teens and young adults. In the nearly eight-minute video, which brings back memories of ABC’s hit comedy (now streaming), the pair learn more about the disease, how it’s transmitted and its effects. GSK makes both Bexsero and Penmenvy, two drugs that may help.
“I knew nothing about this,” Bowen said in a recent interview. “I’m pretty disciplined and I’m proud of it. For example, I’m well-versed in this issue, but I didn’t know that the bacteria that causes meningitis could be spread through all these different activities, including sharing containers.”
The actors, who played a married couple on the show that ran for 11 seasons before ending in 2020, say it’s not difficult to recapture that vibe when needed. “After years of being together and being silly together, there’s a rhythm,” Burrell says.
Marketers have noticed. Bowen and Burrell reunited with co-stars Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson in a 2024 Meta WhatsApp commercial, playing what appears to be their “Modern Family” characters. The spot claimed that instant messaging apps work well whether users rely on iPhone or Android. While the ad got attention, Bowen says it was a little disorienting for the actors. “It was weird because we were on a set that wasn’t ours,” she recalls. “In a way, it felt like I was having a bad dream. We were really good together and everything was the same. And then I looked up at the cameraman who had been with me for 11 years and I was like, oh, he’s not there.”
Bowen and Burrell have also strolled down Madison Avenue themselves. Burrell was credited with contributing to Greenlight’s Super Bowl campaign, an Atlanta company that created an app and debit card for kids and tried to teach them about money management from an early age. Bowen has appeared in commercials for IHOP, Neutrogena, and Xiidra, a prescription eye drop used to treat dry eye.
What is your appeal? “These are America’s parents,” said Sierra Bodor, GSK’s director of U.S. vaccine communications. Consumers “have grown up with them in a way, watching them on TV for years,” she says. They can also bring in their experiences as “real-life parents” because “they’re going through their own authentic journeys.”
In another era, advertisers might have used new celebrities to attract attention. But thanks to streaming, Bowen and Burrell have an even more timeless appeal. The pair report that they are frequently approached by children between the ages of 12 and 15 who are currently watching the series. “I’ve met people in their 30s who say, ‘I grew up watching this show, and now my 9-year-old is starting it,’ and I’m like, ‘Wow,'” Bowen said.
“Modern Family’s” reliance on a cast of young actors may account for the show’s longevity, Burrell said. “I think there’s something about it, and this is a real credit to the kids on this show and their performances. When kids who are 9, 10, 11 years old start watching the show, our young actors, they’re not young anymore, but they’re still young to me. Those kids were really convincing.”
Advertisers have long been clamoring for “Modern Family,” eager to have their products and services woven into storylines that depict them as part of everyday life. Mitchell Pritchett of Ferguson drove a Toyota Prius. Audi, Target, and Oreo were among the marketers woven into episodes of the series, as anyone who watched the episode in which Bowen’s Claire Dunphy went holiday shopping at retail giants might have guessed. ABC asked for between $400,000 and $750,000 for a 30-second ad during the broadcast of the series’ final original episode. And over the years, episodes have continued to garner traction for cable networks like USA and Warner’s TBS, as well as streamers like Disney’s Hulu.
Bowen and Burrell like the challenge the ads provide, and that the time span of the challenge is limited at this point, when they both have teenage children at home. “We’re really lucky that we can only support things that we really love and believe in, and I think that’s a luxury,” Burrell says. “It’s a fun way to work without having to leave the house for long periods of time.”
He also believes marketers and advertising agencies are becoming more collaborative when it comes to producing comedy. “When we first started working on Modern Family, ad agencies were more defensive. I don’t want to make a general statement, but they were more defensive about bringing in outside agency writers. But I think they’ve become more open about bringing in outside writers and what makes the ads the most fun and interesting. Everyone wins, right?” he says. “That’s why I think the advertising over the past five years, at least the advertising I’ve done, has been a very open environment. You get a bunch of people together, you joke with each other, and you all decide which one you think is the best.”
GSK has more to say about the risk of meningitis. The long vignettes featuring Bowen and Burrell are “social-first pieces,” Boder said, and various cuts of the videos will be posted via YouTube and Instagram. Bowen posted a video trailer on his feed. The goal is to reach “parents of 16- to 23-year-olds,” and “parents are watching YouTube,” executives said.
Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell may be best known as TV stars, but they’re also popular social media personalities in the advertising world.
