SCA Hygiene unveils Baby MD character in £15m push

SCA Hygiene has unveiled its new brand icon for Velvet toilet paper – the Baby MD.

The character – a baby dressed in a business suit who “runs” the Velvet factory – will appear in a &£15m campaign for Triple Velvet that breaks next week.

An “authority on softness”, he will feature in TV ads created by Fallon that use special effects and animation to make him the new face of the Velvet brand.

Velvet marketing director Dieter Bocher says the campaign has been designed to make a “low-interest category interesting again”, adding that the brand has worked hard to establish an “irreverent” tone of voice.

The campaign has been created to support the move from Double Velvet to Triple Velvet (MW November 24, 2005). SCA has added a new “dimpled” middle-layer to the paper, which it claims improves its softness, strength and absorbency.

Alongside the television campaign, Haygarth is running an integrated PR campaign that will include a fundraising event at Great Ormond Street hospital and a national baby-themed competition.

Direct mail agency Chemistry will also target shopping centres up and down the country, with “touch-tests” that allow consumers to feel the product, along with the chance to win a Mini soft top convertible car.

Meanwhile, SCA is also spending &£5m on its Bodyform brand of feminine hygiene products (MW January 12).

Bodyform New Generation Ultra towels, which launched in January, were backed by a politically themed campaign created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty. The push features the strapline: “Vote for Change. Wear Bodyform.”