There is a certain logic, if one thinks about it for more than a moment, to advertising bladder protection products during football games. Women, after all, make up nearly half of the National Football League's audience — a statistic that has been true for some time but that still seems to surprise people who picture the typical viewer as a man in a recliner.
Always Discreet, the adult incontinence brand owned by Procter & Gamble, has thought about it for more than a moment. The brand has enlisted mothers of N.F.L. players for what it calls "Protect the Moment," described as the largest campaign in its 12-year history. The goal, according to the company, is to address the stigma surrounding bladder leaks, a condition that affects 60 percent of women ages 45 and older.
(That the condition is simultaneously extremely common and almost never discussed publicly suggests that previous advertising efforts across the category have had their work cut out for them.)
The partnership with the league represents an attempt to meet the brand's consumers where they already are. Data from the research firm Numerator indicates that professional football is the most-watched sport among people who purchase adult incontinence products — a finding that, once stated, seems obvious, though it apparently took a research firm to confirm it.
Always Discreet, which P.& G. introduced in 2013, has been steadily working to normalize conversations around what the industry delicately calls "light bladder leakage." The current effort, with its focus on real women in a real context rather than the soft-focus anonymity typical of the category, suggests the brand believes directness may finally be more effective than discretion.
The campaign name, of course, is "Protect the Moment." The product name remains Always Discreet. Some silences, it seems, are easier to break than others.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Always Discreet Enlists NFL Moms to Break the Silence on Bladder Leaks"