• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 31, 2010

No one can accuse Head & Shoulders of lacking a sense of humor: The Procter & Gamble brand says it has insured Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu's trademark hair for $1 million, and that the policy will cover those crazy Samoan curls for the entire football season.

Polamalu's locks even rate their own Web site -- troyshair.com -- with all kinds of fun, including a way to upload a friend's face under his hair, apps, and a "Mane Event" bracket to vote on the strangest 'dos ever to come out of the NFL. (Today's vote, for example, had fans choose between the trademark helmet hair of former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, versus the bewildering mop of Tony Siragusa, actor and former Baltimore Raven.)

The insurance policy (from Lloyd's of London) and site are just the latest part of P&G's plan to maximize its NFL connection. Now in its second year as the official sponsor of the league, it hopes its ads will appeal not just to football fans, but to the women who love them -- as well as the women who just think those girly-curls are cute.

"When P&G signed with the NFL it was as much a push toward women consumers as men, if not more so," Barry Janoff, executive editor of NYSportsJournalism and a contributor to Marketing:Sports, tells Marketing Daily.

"Grooming products are trying to make themselves more macho so guys will not feel weird using them in public at the gym and on business trips. But it also is intended to make them top of mind for women, who have much more control of purchasing decisions than men. Women buy a lot of these products for their husbands and boyfriends. So if a tough guy like Polamalu is using Head & Shoulders, it must be cool."

Janoff says the strategy seems to be working -- not just for P&G, but also Unilever's Vaseline for Men line, which launched in 2008 with a campaign starring former New York Giant Michael Strahan, and P&G's Old Spice efforts, including former NFL players and Isaiah Mustafa for Old Spice. "They seem to be working in terms of sales and awareness," he says.

"It's a good strategy," John Rowady, president and founder of rEvolution, a sports media consultancy, tells Marketing Daily, adding that the Gillette acquisition continues to inform P&G's sports-marketing savvy. "In the NFL, there is a very passionate male fan base and a passionate female fan base. The changes in the economy have affected the way the female shopper acts in the store, and using a fun, quirky campaign to influence the male buyer is a good idea. This could create a buzz, and wind up being a successful social program for them."

Meanwhile, P&G is sprinkling Troy's hair site with hirsute trivia (he hasn't seen a barber in seven years, and laid end to end, it would span 100 football fields) and with plugs for H&S' Hair Endurance for Men, along with games, gimmicks and contests. Prizes include a Super Bowl XLV VIP package.