• The New York Times, Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:15 AM

In an attempt to take back the top toothpaste sales spot from Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble Company has rolled out a new product which claims to deliver everything a consumer could possibly want in the same tube. Plus, Crest Pro-Health will be supported by a $100 million advertising campaign, the company's largest for a new dental product.

The effort, Saatchi & Saatchi, is clinical in tone: One spot has an actual dentist; another an actor playing a researcher. Pro-Health is designed to challenge the Colgate Total line, the first toothpaste to claim that it fights gingivitis--a quality that put Colgate ahead of Crest for the first time in decades.

Of course, Colgate is fighting back with record ad spending of its own, with a campaign from the Y & R division of Young & Rubicam Brands that features actress Brooke Shields in her real-life role as a mother. It is the first time Colgate Total has used a celebrity in a campaign. "By virtue of sheer spending power, people are going to be thinking more about toothpaste than they have in a long time," says Gary M. Stibel, chief executive at the New England Consulting Group.

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