Procter & Gamble says that the fragrance of Downy Unstoppables laundry beads lasts up to 12 weeks. It’s 12 weeks until the Super Bowl. So P&G has launched Downy’s Super Bowl campaign with a secret celebrity who will test the claim over the next two months. Tied into the plot is the idea that he is a fragrance claim skeptic. He is unsure about endorsing the product until he knows it works.
The campaign begins like this:
He will test P&G’s fragrance claims in a series of TVCs and digital media videos before the Downy Super Bowl ad goes to air in the second quarter of the game. This is not the only suspense that P&G hopes to build. It hasn’t released the name of the spokesperson except to describe him as bold and feisty, attributes that support Downy’s brand personality.
The campaign was created by P&G’s Woven Collaborative, a multi-agency collective co-led by executives from WPP’s Grey and Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi.
“The beauty of this campaign is that it goes back to that tension that is created by what the consumer thinks of the product,” said Ciro Sarmiento, chief creative officer of Woven Collaborative. “We have an incredible product with an incredible truth, which is the long-lasting scent. There’s also an incredible tension from the consumer, which is people usually don’t believe in claims.







