• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:30 AM

J&J is deviating from the medium--TV--and the message that long ago put it on top of the market. Animated Web ads for Johnson & Johnson 's Baby Lotion highlight the emotional connections babies build with their mothers rather than the medicinal benefits that most competitors stress. An animation studio, not an ad agency, develops the ads.

Its decision to depart from its decades-long advertising formula carries risk, as competition in the baby-lotion market is heating up. J&J retains almost half of the $814.5 million baby-care market, but it faces competition from companies that weren't even in the U.S. market five years ago, including Ascendia Brands, with Baby Magic, and Kimberly-Clark, with Huggies.

J&J is focusing on its "Pink brand" this year because of research it has done on mothers and babies. The company is promoting itself as a bonding specialist, offering parents a list of signs of deeper bonds with their kids. (One example: longer gazes.) Massaging--with lotion, of course--is part of the bonding formula.

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