Super Bowl commercial features Tampa native and her nausea relief product

TAMPA — Her holistic pain and nausea relief NoMo wrist bands are known around the world.

But on Sunday, NoMo’s founder Jacqueline Darna will be introduced on one of the largest “stages” – during a Super Bowl commercial.

The Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee produced a commercial to air during the game with the purpose to sell the area as a business destination.

Five local business owners are featured. Darna, a Tampa native, was called upon to open and close the advertisement.

The host committee said “we need to have a company show how they can start as a startup, grow into a small business, become a global entity, and made it all happen here in Tampa,” Darna said. “They gave me a great opportunity. I still can’t believe I’m the start and end of a Super Bowl commercial.”

The other featured business owners are:

• Joy Randels, founder of New Market Partners
• Brian Murphy, founder of ReliaQuest
• Sheryl Hunter, founder of Hunter Business Law
• Ryan Nece, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers player and managing partner of Next Play Capital

Earlier in the week, Hillsborough and Pinellas film commissioners said they were unaware of Super Bowl commercials shot locally. We now know of two. The host committee’ spot and a Nike commerial featuring Alonso and Robinson high school’s flag football teams.

The Super Bowl is often described as a four-hour commercial for the host city due to the B-roll of the area shown throughout the game.

The host committee’s Super Bowl spot seeks to add to that.

“Downtown Tampa, it’s been reinvigorated,” Nece says in the commercial. “There is life. There is energy ... Tampa is your opportunity to be a champion. It gives you the opportunity to build a winning life.”

Darna says she is proof of that proclamation.

“I had an idea,” she said. “And now my product is used in hospitals in about 12 countries and we were recently picked up by over 30,000 retailers.”

The concept behind her NoMo products was born after the birth of her second child in 2013.

“I was massively sick for three straight days” from the childbirth, said Darna, an anesthesia clinician with degrees from the University of South Florida and Nova Southeastern University. “There was nothing that would work. Then my stepmom walked in with a peppermint plant. Almost immediately I got relief.”

Already a believer in using acupressure to alleviate pain, Darna looked for a product combining that technique with aroma therapy.

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“It didn’t exist,” she said. “So, I patented an essential oil and acupressure device.”

NoMo Nausea was first. She has since created NoMo Migraine and NoMo Sleepless Nights.

The elastic latex bands press an acupressure point on the wrist and are infused with essential oils with scents to provide further relief, Darna said.

She initially only sold her bands to hospitals before branching out two years ago to retail stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond and CVS.

“I’ve done it all from Tampa,” Darna said. “I’m proud of that.”

Now, Darna said, she hopes her success highlighted in the Super Bowl commercial inspires others to follow their business dreams in Tampa.

“You can play, work and stay here,” Darna said, echoing her dialogue in the commercial. “The weather is nice here. Our talent pool is amazing. There’s just a lot of life and a lot of innovation here. Why wouldn’t you want to be here?”