Baby Soft Scoops Spot in Top Twenty Favourite South African Ads for 2016

Humour, cute kids and slice-of-life stories continue to engage television viewers. This is according to global media research agency, Millward Brown, who recently released its ranking of the top 20 most liked adverts in South Africa for the first half of 2016.

The Baby Soft ‘Feel as Clean as Brushed Teeth’ television advert, featuring ample doses of funniness and cute kids, scooped the tenth spot on the list. Baby Soft’s advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather was tasked with introducing the brand’s new Baby Soft Moist Toilet Tissue, which offers consumers a fresh new standard of clean when paired with Baby Soft Dry. The goal was to prompt people to re-evaluate their clean routine in the bathroom and to switch to the Baby Soft two-step approach, which promotes using dry and moist together.

According to Tanya Taylor at Ogilvy & Mather Jhb, ‘Intimate hygiene is naturally quite a tricky subject to talk about. A frowned upon topic in polite conversation, bodily functions just lead to massive amounts of awkwardness. It’s from this awkwardness that the concept for the advert was born: children don’t mind talking about this stuff. In fact, most kids go through a phase where they love nothing more than talking about pee and poo!’

Taylor added, ‘We decided to approach this seemingly taboo subject in a charming, relatable way by diffusing the situation with cuteness. We wanted to give viewers an intimate glimpse into a school room where the teacher’s initial awkwardness, in asking how clean the children felt using the product, was diffused by the kids and their sincere innocence. The result is an advertisement which is equal parts endearing and disarming, making this topic something families can laugh about together.’

Tamaryn McPherson, Senior Marketing Manager at Baby Soft added, ‘The Baby Soft advert works so well with consumers for a number of reasons. Naturally, people just love kids and puppies! More importantly, the mouths of babes are famously the only place from which you’ll hear the truth – especially when it comes to such intimate matters as a bathroom routine. Getting kids to talk about such things adds a sense of play, making it possible for grown-ups to spark the conversation and also talk openly about personal hygiene.

‘As a brand, Baby Soft is redefining the standard of clean and paving the way for better intimate hygiene. As an iconic, aspirational brand, Baby Soft delivers consistently on quality, giving consumers the best experience. We really wanted to encourage consumers to add Baby Soft Moist Toilet Tissue to their current dry routine for ultimate cleanliness and freshness. Ultimately, we are delighted that viewers loved the way the advert delivered this important message,’ concluded McPherson