My seven year old son is fixated on potty humor.  He enjoys potty jokes and finds it important to share with my wife and me what happened in the bathroom in great detail .  We frequently tell him that he’s over-sharing, as there’s no need to talk about what he experienced/deposited in the bathroom.  Well, Charmin appears to disagree.  In what only can be described as social media gone awry Charmin is running a unusual social media campaign.

They’re seeking “five super-fun enthusiastic people to work at the Charmin restrooms in New York City during the holiday season.  They will pay the so-called lucky winners to entertain people and blog about what transpires in the bathroom.  Are you kidding me?

While marketers are in a rush to develop social media strategies and tactics that bring them closer to their prospects and customers, there are three very basic questions to consider when evaluating whether the idea passes the sniff test (sorry, couldn’t resist) of whether what is proposed is appropriate for a brand:

1. Born out of consumer Insight:  The strategy and tactic need to reflect how the brand and or category fits within how consumers think about the brand/product.

2. Relevant:  Taps into something that is meaningful within the lives of customer/prospect.

3. Entertaining: Idea must reflect what your consumers/prospects constitute as entertaining.

My feeling is that if Charmin is looking to attract 7 year olds or “potty mouths” then they’re on the right track, otherwise this idea will be flushed away (again, couldn’t resist).