When football fans tune into early games on CBS this Sunday, they may notice that some very young players are using extra padding.
An inspiring 60-second spot from Pampers features an array of wee tykes, all being comforted or protected by the popular Procter & Gamble diaper. And while football viewers may be more accustomed to seeing commercials touting beer, financial services or snacks during their sports-filled Sunday, marketers at Pampers think there’s room on the field for a different kind of message.
In the past, Pampers had what Adam Riegle, Procter’s vice president of brand for North America baby care products, calls a “sporadic” relationship with sports programming. In the streaming era, however, “I want to make sure that we are showing up and being invited into the moments where families are coming together,” he says during a recent interview. “And the NFL is one of those moments.”
With more one-time TV viewers accustomed to binge-watching scripted favorites when they choose, sports have been turbocharged. The games are one of the few program formats that still bring the broad, simultaneous viewership that Madison Avenue craves — and, as a result, more advertisers are trying to get money down on them, even if they haven’t been known for doing so in the past.
Among the advertisers in NFL games last year that did not run commercials during the previous season were PayPal, VRBO and Scopely, according to data from iSpot, a tracker of viewership and ad spending. NFL games shown on Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS captured approximately $6.76 billion in national ad dollars, the company says.
Pampers isn’t alone in trying to court football fans with new video pitches. Lowe’s, for example, has tapped Saquon Barkley, Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, and Dak Prescot to appear in a ds encouraging fans to finish home projects before football arrives on Sundays. Comcast has lured actors Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn — who teamed up in the 2005 comedy “Wedding Crashers” — to put a spotlight on how the company’s Xfinity cable service serves up all the sports a fan might want.
But Pampers may be among a host of advertisers trying to navigate a different sort of arena. Sports drove the industry’s recent “upfront” market, when U.S. TV companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for the next season. Disney, for example, saw surges in ad commitments tied to NFL games, NBA matches and various women’s sports. NBC was able to sell out its commercial inventory tied to next year’s Super Bowl LX months ahead of kickoff.
Like those marketers, Procter & Gamble is interested in the large number of potential customers it may find on the opening weekend of the NFL season. Among those assembling, says Riegle, are “a lot of parents, young and old,” who will see scenes of babies in the hospital, sleeping in a crib, playing with a parent and, in the very end, moving from a crawl to walk. They will be reminded of the diaper’s six decades in the marketplace. All of this takes place while Stephen . Pampers are “behind every baby,” viewers are told in the spot, which is created with a bespoke group of Publicis Group agencies that includes Saatchi & Saatchi, the ad agency that helped Tide — another P&G product — craft attention-getting ads for recent Super Bowl telecasts.
The campaign aims to remind caregivers “that Pampers has been the go-to diaper brand for decades, trusted by parents, hospitals and pediatricians alike,” says Matt McKay, chief creative officer at the agency.
There may be even greater reasons to put an ad that plucks the heartstrings in front of a broader crowd. Like many U.S. companies, P&G is scrutinizing the effects of tariffs levied by the Trump administration and whether they will increase the costs of bringing goods needed for products into the country. Should P&G need to pass prices on to consumers, a campaign that make them feel good about key products can’t hurt. In addition to Pampers , P&G also makes supermarket staples like Tide. Crest and Old Spice.
Pampers’ ads won’t just swaddle TV. The 60-second spot will also appear on social media and via broadband outlets, Families will be invited to share photos of newborns on Instagram or TikTok for a chance to win a year’s supply of diapers. Lauren and Cameron Hamilton, featured in the popular series “Love is Blind,” will offer social content tied to Pampers’ effort and take part in interviews on behalf of the company.
This new minute-long commercial will run for the next three weeks, says Riegle. But Pampers’ growing interest in sports might last longer. “It’s really important to make sure that we are telling our story where our consumers are,” the executive says. “I believe that live sports, places like the NFL, continue to be a place where consumers are leaning in.”
