Charmin NYC Restrooms

Best Use of Public Relations in a Promotion Campaign
& Most Innovative Communication Strategy

Charmin NYC Restrooms
Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.
Client: Charmin, a Procter & Gamble brand

For three years, Charmin has been successfully addressing a point that people everywhere agree is an issue: lack of clean public restrooms. Now, having generated worldwide acclaim for their public restroom in Times Square during the holiday shopping season, the question in 2009 became, How do you improve upon such a successful program?

Gigunda Group developed a four-pronged approach that would inject excitement into the event and keep media momentum at full tilt for the event’s six-week run. It started with an American Idol-style casting call for the “most enthusiastic toilet goer.” Five people were selected to be social media activists live from the Restrooms for a pay of $10,000 each for six weeks of blogging. With the economy at an all-time low, the turnout was phenomenal.

On November 23rd, Charmin returned to Broadway with a new campaign: “Enjoy the Go.” Television personality Mario Lopez was knighted King of the Throne as master of opening day ceremonies. He performed the ceremonial toilet tissue cutting and first flush. In addition, the “Go” was introduced and the social media campaign officially kicked off.

On December 17, celebrities Mario Cantone, Mario Lopez, Martina McBride and Sherri Shepherd designed toilet seat covers. For each flush, Charmin donated a dollar to the artist’s charity of choice, up to $50,000 each. The star-studded seats, ranging from boxing to disco themes, were on display.

December 29th, Bathrooms Over Broadway, Broadway’s first ever bathroom musical, was performed live at the Charmin NYC Restrooms. Through a donation from Charmin, non-profit Broadway Cares created the 15-minute “cheeky” musical that featured Broadway performers including Christopher Sieber, star of “Shrek the Musical.”

This year’s performance far surpassed media impression goals, achieving 3.7 billion total media impressions.

Go Back to the 2010 Pro Awards