• by Karl Greenberg , February 12, 2009

Kimberly-Clark is doing what might be called the Soulja Boy Tell 'Em dance for infants. Its Pull-Ups brand has enlisted celeb-reality mom Tori Spelling to pitch the "Potty Dance" to mothers and kids for the Kimberly-Clark training pants.

Yes, you read correctly--the Potty Dance. The toilet tango is intended as a routine-slash-ritual that moms can teach their toddlers in order to forestall the Freudian trauma accessory to learning how to go.

Spelling, whose child is evidently potty training, will promote the Potty Dance as part of an effort that includes TV, Web and print advertising, interactive elements and a launch event in New York City today.

The official "Potty Dance" song and the dance steps are at www.pull-ups.com, and the Pull-Ups brand's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ pull-ups. The video and ad play on dance videos like the Soulja's "Crank That" dance, with a hip-hop guy blinged out and dressed in white showing an array of multicultural kids and parents learning the dance to funky music. The Pull-Ups training pants are also shown, but with the paradoxical message that toddlers don't need Pull-Ups if they're ready to be big kids. Tag: "I'm a Big Kid Now."

The online effort also includes a video contest at the Web sites in which moms can upload videos of their tots performing the Potty Dance for a chance to win prizes. Parents are urged not to include footage of the kids actually going to the potty.

Spelling, star of "Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood," will be on hand at a launch event at the Helen Mills Theater in New York where some 250 parents and children--including Spelling's own son--will learn the dance. Spelling will also be making a "Today Show" appearance on behalf of the brand.

While the new TV spot--via JWT--does not feature Spelling, excerpts from the Gotham City event will be shown on Oxygen's "Tori and Dean." And there will be product placement on the show, per the K-C spokesperson. He says Pull-Ups ad campaigns have, in the past, focused solely on product attributes. "This is the first time Pull-Ups Training Pants has developed a commercial program engaging consumers to help kick-start potty training," he says.

The integrated media plan for the campaign includes national TV and magazines, including a branded removable insert in "Parenting Magazine;" a collaboration with Yahoo to build a Potty Dance online experience where consumers can see the video, watch uploaded versions of the dance and submit their own video for a chance to win a $5,000 gift; and a collaboration with American Greeting to develop viral e-card for parents to share the potty dance with their friends and family.

The Potty Dance messaging will be in both inserts and a direct mail drop this quarter to over 7 million households.

Per the rep, Pull-Ups has been the category leader since it launched the segment in 1989. The line was expanded in 2004.

Chicago-based consultancy Mintel, in a 2007 study, said the market for disposable baby products grew only 11% between 2002 and 2007, to reach $7.1 billion. The firm says the market has seen sluggish growth because of lower birth rates and pressure from private-label brands.

Per Mintel, Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark accounted for an estimated 72% of retail sales (excluding Wal-Mart) in 2007, and Wal-Mart in 2007 controlled over 50% of the disposable baby products market.

* Editor's note: This story was amended post publication to remove all references to Huggies, at the request of Kimberly-Clark.