• by Karl Greenberg , April 11, 2011

Procter & Gamble's Pampers brand is launching a campaign tied to its 50th birthday with a new program, "Little Miracle Missions."  

The effort includes TV ads that feature "little miracles," a Facebook program to get people to "pay it forward" and participate in the "Little Miracle Mission." When consumers pledge on the dedicated Facebook page that they have given an expectant mother a gift, Pampers will give baby showers to expectant mothers nationwide.

As part of the program, P&G employees and the relatives of Pampers founder/inventor Vic Mills will meet at P&G Baby Care headquarters. The company says it is also doing a celebrity tie-in, wherein famous parents will tell stories about their newborns and deliver care packages to the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Pampers will issue different missions throughout the year.

Pampers and Graham's Foundation, which provides care packages that offer both practical and emotional support for the parents of micro-preemies, will donate care packages to families with babies in Level 3 neonatal intensive care units in the U.S.

A recent P&G study found that multiple births are up by 8 percentage points and now constitute 10% of births. Also, the use of fertility treatments has doubled. The biggest increase is births to unmarried women: from 5.6% in 1961 to 40.6% now, according to P&G. Another finding: the number of stay-at-home dads has doubled from 76,000 in 1994.