• by Karl Greenberg , January 13, 2012

Procter & Gamble, a Worldwide Olympics Partner, is bringing back it “Thank You Mom" campaign for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The company first launched the program supporting mothers of Olympic hopefuls for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

P&G says it plans also to raise $5 million to help establish and sustain youth sports programs around the world via a portion of sales and donations from its major brands like Pampers, Tide, Gillette and Pantene.

The Cincinnati CPG giant and a roster of its brands will sponsor more than 150 athletes, according to the company, who will be featured in advertising and retail campaigns to generate sales toward donations that will help support youth sports.

Among the athletes are Michael Phelps, who will appear in ads for Head & Shoulders; UK athlete Paula Radcliffe, who will pitch Fairy and Pampers; Roger Federer, a member of the Gillette "Young Guns" spokesperson roster; the UK's Jessica Ennis, who will speak for Olay; and China's badminton star, Lin Dan, also for Gillette.

For the Vancouver Olympics, P&G was a partner of Team USA, and created the “proud sponsor of moms” positioning, which included defraying some of the cost of travel to Vancouver for athletes' mothers. That was part of “P&G Thanks, Mom” which also included a kind of clubhouse for athletes and families at the winter Olympic Village there.

For the upcoming games, the company's Gillette brand alone has signed 24 athletes from 18 countries as sponsors. Besides Federer and China's Dan, Ryan Lochte of the United States, Emmanuel Ginobili of Argentina and Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain are among them. The Gillette campaign is part of P&G’s 10-year partnership with the Olympic Movement starting with London. P&G’s global partnership with the IOC in support of the Olympic Movement reaches through the next five Olympics, through the 2020 Games.

So far in its worldwide Olympic partnership status P&G is joined by Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, General Electric, McDonald's, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa. London 2012 Official partners thus far include adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, and Lloyds TSB. Cadbury, Deloitte, Thomas Cook Cisco and UPS are among the somewhat lower Olympic pantheon of "Supporters."