Dive Brief:
- Procter & Gamble partnered with Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon's media company, to develop content around Eve Rodsky's bestselling book "Fair Play," according to a press release. The book, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on Oct. 1, offers a system for rebalancing the domestic workload through a set of rules, household tasks and a "figurative card game" to play with one's partner.
- As part of the collaboration, Hello Sunshine worked with P&G brands Tide, Downy, Charmin and Bounty to create a video series and podcast called "In All Fairness." In it, Rodsky talks about the "Fair Play" system with guests such as TV personality Whitney Port, reporter and actress Tanika Ray and relationship expert Shan Boodram.
- Episodes will be distributed on the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine YouTube channel, and promoted on P&G and Hello Sunshine's social accounts. Rodsky has spoken at P&G offices in four cities, and P&G has created custom playing cards for employees based on her work. Ahead, the CPG marketer will introduce a campaign with cultural influencers that details how to apply the "Fair Play" system.
Dive Insight:
P&G is one of the largest sellers of household cleaning products in the world, but its latest partnership around "Fair Play" shows the company taking steps to recognize how domestic work can often be imbalanced, particularly against women. Teaming with Hello Sunshine to develop branded podcasts and video series for The New York Times bestseller signals another way the marketer is turning away from a focus on traditional advertising to instead invest in deeper content integrations.
P&G has frequently leveraged its clout and deep pockets — it spent $2.9 billion on advertising last year in the U.S. alone, according to Kantar Media estimates — to promote initiatives focused on gender equality. In a statement around the "Fair Play" partnership, Carolyn Tastad, P&G's group president of North America, said that "equality at work is easier when there's equality at home."
The deal falls in line with recent efforts from the marketer. In August, P&G released two short documentaries on Hulu in a partnership with Tribeca Studios and actor-producer Queen Latifah. The films, made by women, are intended to "accelerate gender and racial equality."
In September, P&G and National Geographic released a six-part documentary series discussing world issues like inequality, girls' education and extreme poverty. The series, while largely free of branded content, featured brief spotlights of the work that Tide, Always, Charmin and Head & Shoulders are doing with organizations that address these issues.
Hello Sunshine has gained traction for Witherspoon since she launched the media initiative last year. The company has recently worked on TV series including Apple+ TV's launch title "The Morning Show" and season two of HBO's "Big Little Lies," both of which star Witherspoon. Last fall, it made its first push into podcasts with a network focused on female creatives, per The Hollywood Reporter.
