The Lowdown is Ad Age's weekly look at news nuggets from across the world of marketing, including trends, campaign tidbits, executive comings and goings and more.
The New York Jets got a surprising amount of buzz for the preparations around their trip to London last week, which included bringing 350 rolls of their own toilet paper, according to The New York Times. But it remains a mystery which brand was used. Charmin is indeed part of Procter & Gamble Co.'s far-reaching sponsorship deal with the NFL, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee placement in locker rooms either in New Jersey or London. A P&G spokeswoman said Friday she got no response from the Jets regarding which brand they brought to London. The Jets declined to comment. Even so, Charmin did issue a tweet of good luck to the Jets on Sunday.
Hope the @nyjets really feel their home
field advantage today. #TPfortheWin
pic.twitter.com/I6t9A3rKta
— Charmin (@Charmin) October 4,
2015
The move appears a potential loss either way for Kimberly-Clark Corp., which sells Andrex, British sibling of Cottonelle, in the U.K. For the Jets, the idea was to replicate home conditions as much as possible, including using thicker, more potentially loo-clogging American toilet paper rather than the thinner British stuff. The attention to detail may have paid off though. The Jets won 27-14, and the Dolphins lost their head coach on the way home: Joe Philbin was fired Monday after the team's 1-3 start.
Elsewhere overseas, a Russian marketing agency is claiming responsibility for a 10,000-square foot crop circle that "mysteriously" appeared near Rostov-on-Don, a city with a population of about 1 million located near the Black Sea and Ukraine, on Monday. The crop circle -- which depicted an image of the newly announced Samsung Gear S2 -- garnered much news attention in Russia. A video by the agency, Rose Marketing, shows how the giant watch was created. It had just 127 views on YouTube as of Wednesday morning, however. The publicity stunt is similar to a soccer-themed campaign in 2013 where alien-like symbols and cryptic messages were on display across Brazil, the United States, England, Germany and Italy. In that stunt, the South Korean electronics maker was promoting the launch of the Galaxy 11. A Samsung spokeswoman confirmed the Russian stunt, saying it is "part of teaser PR campaign for Samsung Gear S2."