A good friend of mine fought for years with her husband about one thing: should the toilet paper be hung so that it rolls over or under?
The debate ended one day when she realized she didn't really care, but her husband did. "It was a small price to pay to save our marriage."
Now Kimberly Clark's Cottonelle brand has taken up the debate of which roll orientation Americans prefer. They launched a campaign centered around a national consumer poll.
The brand will run a pair of ads during the Academy Awards on Sunday that announce the results.
John Stanwood, Cottonelle senior brand manager, says that the campaign -- which started this year with TV ads, outdoor placements, and a Web and mobile strategy -- is the beginning of an ongoing consumer forum for personal hygiene issues. He says the voting process, which ends on Saturday, garnered 500,000 votes with "overs" winning by a 72-28 landslide.
From Marketing Daily:
"What we have done is start a two-way dialogue with consumers -- something we haven't seen in this category for some time. And we have news for the brand as well as news about winner of the debate, so it segues into a meaningful dialogue about the brand." He would not divulge what, precisely, the company is introducing on Sunday night, but allowed that it involves an innovation that will give consumers "a better toilet paper experience."
