Greenpeace

Last Saturday in New York’s Times Square, Kimberly-Clark was filming a Kleenex “Let It Out” commercial. Unfortunately for K-C, Greenpeace activists were there to join them.

Kimberly Clark’s new ad campaign features "Brand ambassadors" who stop folks on the street, telling them "don't hold anything back,” and "let it out." The commercial encourages these real people to tell Kleenex about something that upsets them (and then use a Kleenex to wipe their teary eyes). Well, we definitely told them what upsets us!

We sent three undercover Greenpeace Frontline activists in with hidden mics to infiltrate their interviews and talk about what really makes us cry: wiping out old-growth forests for disposable tissue products. While our third activist actor was sitting on the Kleenex couch, talking to the therapist/actor, ten folks in Kleercut t-shirts appeared out of nowhere and held a "Kleercut" banner up behind the couch.

The Kleenex team was caught off guard. They stopped the film shoot and for the rest of the day we flyered passersby, effectively shutting down the filming of  a massive ad campaign. KC execs in town for a paper conference stopped by to observe looking none too pleased in their suits and their scowls.

At one point the camera crew had to shut down for an hour, they had a difficult time getting a shot that excluded the Kleercut logo, and for some reason found very few New Yorkers interested in Letting It Out for their commercials. To see a video picked up by the Gothamist (NYC's largest blog that has a circulation of 250,000 hits/day) go to
http://www.gothamist.com/2007/03/26/video_of_the_da_57.php