Dive Brief:
- Procter & Gamble's Charmin brand of toilet paper is auctioning three original digital artworks to help raise money for charity, per an announcement. The artworks are non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a kind of cryptocurrency that turns digital images into verifiable one-of-a-kind assets that can be sold through a blockchain.
- The artwork shows rolls of Charmin toilet paper with different ornamentations and comes with a physical display that people can display "in their bathroom alongside real rolls." P&G enlisted artists Donna Adi, Shanee Benjamin and Made by Radio to craft the images, with the NFTs available for bidding at Rarible, the online marketplace for crypto assets.
- P&G will donate all proceeds from the auction to Direct Relief, a nonprofit that provides emergency medical supplies resources to needy communities. Charmin previously donated $2 million dollars to the organization to support healthcare workers over the last year, per the announcement.
Dive Insight:
P&G's auction of digital artwork inspired by Charmin toilet paper comes as NFT auctions make headlines. A digital work titled "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" by artist Mike Winkelmann, professionally known as "Beeple," last week sold for an eye-watering $69.3 million in an online auction handled by Christie's. It was the most expensive digital asset with an NFT ever sold, and the third-most expensive artwork sold by a living artist. As people pay more attention to NFTs, Charmin can participate in the publicity for the online auctions while also raising money for a good cause.
Charmin isn't the only brand to get in on the budding NFT craze. Pizza Hut Canada this week said it would begin selling digital images of pizza for the cryptocurrency equivalent of the cost of a real slice. The chain plans to release the "1 Byte Favourites" of its "non-fungible pizza" every day at lunchtime for a limited period on Rarible, per an announcement. The NFT offer is in advance of a promotion for the pizza chain's "$10 Favourites" menu.
Charmin has shown a playful attitude toward technology as toilet paper remains mostly unchanged from year to year. At last year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES), P&G poked fun at some of the far-fetched technology that attendees have come to expect at the exhibition. Its Charmin GoLab demonstrated three concepts for bathroom products that included the RollBot device to deliver toilet paper with smartphone commands, the SmellSense to monitor bathroom odors and the V.I.Pee, a porta-potty equipped with a virtual reality (VR) headset. The auction for digital artwork inspired by Charmin is in the same vein of adopting the latest technologies for a humorous effect.
