ATLANTA — Are you ready to “Respect the Roll?”
Kimberly-Clark is looking to shake up the toilet-paper accessory category with toilet roll covers from designer Jonathan Adler.
To boost awareness about a new formulation of its Cottonelle toilet paper that it says is 30 percent stronger, Kimberly-Clark Inc. decided to forgo traditional advertising. Instead, it’s offering limited-edition boxes to hide your backup rolls.
Who knew you needed such a thing?
It’s the latest effort by consumer product makers to spice up stagnant categories with eye-catching design. In 2010, Kotex introduced the “U by Kotex” line of pads and tampons with neon packaging and pad carriers designed by stylist Patricia Fields, for example.
Allen Adamson, managing director of global branding firm Landor in New York, said Target Corp. has successfully brought design to a lot of consumer product categories with such lines as the housewares rethought by renowned industrial designer Michael Graves.
But it’s new for toilet paper. “It’s just surprising when design finally meets toilet paper — that’s sort of the final frontier,” Adamson said.
The Associated Press
