U by Kotex marketer: the beaver won’t go on TV because it was spoiling our messaging
Kimberly-Clark has chosen not to reintroduce its controversial beaver in TV advertising for sanitary brand U by Kotex, because the character was detracting from the message the brand wanted to communicate to girls.
Kimberly-Clark yesterday brought back the beaver, which hasn’t been seen since it first appeared in 2008, but it will feature online only.
Answering a question on why a campaign would feature a brand mascot in one medium but not another, Margaret Cheung told Mumbrella via email: “The ‘Ultimate Care’ campaign featuring the beaver was highly successful in generating awareness and educating girls about providing ‘the ultimate care down there’.
“As with many campaigns, however, there was a shift over time. Tracking showed that the Beaver character was starting to detracting from the key messages we were trying to communicate to girls,” she said.
Hence, the advertiser changed tack and switched to TV ads such as U Know What Works, which takes a more practical approach to sanitary towel advertising, and does not feature the beaver.
Cheung added: “We evolved to the U Know What Works campaign which uses real consumer insights to build trust with girls by demonstrating that we understand what they are going through and by talking to them in their language, ie that they wear their ‘daggy undies’ when they have their period and that they go to the bathroom to do a ‘leak check’ – and U by Kotex provides superior product solutions to these common problems.”
“However, knowing that the Beaver character still had great awareness when the research showed that people want to talk to a personality and not a corporate brand on social media platforms it made perfect sense to ‘bring back the Beaver’ as the ambassador for the U by Kotex Facebook page.”
The agency behind the above the line work is Shift; Brand Love is handling the digital campaign.
Debate swirled on Twitter today over whether the beaver was a male or female. A Kimberly-Clark spokeswoman confirmed that the beaver is, in fact, a female.
Can it get more confusing? This person clearly has no idea about brand positioning/building et al. Clearly with their massive brand spend they can afford to support two completely different approaches…
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Hahah. Let’s just put it on the internet, no one will notice…
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Sounds like they’re don’t want to let go of the beaver yet are scared to continue with it too. They’ll end up with … your guess is as good as mine …
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So offensive. As long as this brand uses that stupid mascot, I will never buy its products!
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Sounds like neither the Client or the Agency has a clue. Initial campaign, which was lame and offensive to many, is proved to be damaging brand and detracting from product message and yet they are going to retain part of it… real smart
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vagina
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Blokes loved the beaver but females hated it. Since the only market for their products is females, I think I understand why Kotex and their agency are gilding the lily so much.
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I’m a girl. I loved the beaver ads, thought they were cute and humerous. And think Kotex have really good products.
Being offended by the beaver is a bit precious, and not using their products because of it is your loss.
And no, I don’t work for Kotex, or their agency.
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