Ogilvy ‘Leaks’ New Spot for Depend

By Erik Oster 

Ogilvy launched a new ad extending last year’s “Underwearness” campaign for Depend, which has seen competition from P&G’s Always Discreet, which launched last summer.

The new spot shows young women wearing Depend (without pants) while going about their daily business. “For the 51 million of us who may need a different kind of underwear, this is new Depend Silhouette Active Fit,” the voiceover announces. “It’s slim and smooth, so wearing it is no big deal.” The spot ends by offering viewers a free sample at underwareness.com.

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While AdAge characterizes the ad as using sex to sell incontinence products, the women in the ad aren’t really sexualized. Rather, the pantslessness is meant to display that wearing the product is “no big deal” as well as showing off that Silhouette Active Fit looks more like typical underwear and allows more freedom of movement than these kind of products typically did in the past — all selling points for younger women who may feel embarrassed about bladder leakage.

“It’s a recognition that many women with bladder leakage worry that people can tell,” Liz Metz, brand director of Depend, told AdAge, adding that the spot is “recognition that one in three women deal with this issue, and they come in all shapes and sizes.”

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