• by Les Luchter , June 5, 2024

No, you can’t deduct the purchase of Culturelle probiotics as a charitable tax donation, but the brand is nonetheless spearheading a movement to save what they’re calling an endangered ecosystem.

“Protect the Gut Microbiome” declares the largest campaign in Culturelle’s 25-year-plus history. Equating the human gastrointestinal system to other endangered entities like rainforests, oceans and grasslands, the brand has even recruited a bonafide nonprofit, the Leonardo DiCaprio-founded Re:wild, as a campaign partner.

The effort, which includes a new brand tagline, “Made for human nature,” kicked off last week with Re-wild participating in a satellite media tour, in which the group’s vice president of communications and marketing Robin Moore explained how what’s been happening with the human gut microbiome over several decades parallels the situation of planetary ecosystems. The tour resulted in 27 interviews covering such top markets as New York, Boston, Denver and Miami.

Re:wild is also running posts tied to the campaign on social media, and Culturelle is making a $75,000 donation to the organization.

The nonprofit’s participation will help “reach an audience that’s interested in ecosystems and bring them into this world of health and wellness,” Kelsey Miller, associate creative director of the Mekanism agency, tells Marketing Daily, describing “Protect the Gut Microbiome” as “part campaign, part movement.”

Besides environmentalists, the campaign/movement is targeted at household “chief wellness officers,” Miller says, with the “sweet spot” being women 28-40.

“Protect the Gut Microbiome” features a two-minute documentary-style film that -- unlike typical cause marketing -- doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

“We wanted to treat everything through the lens of, how does environmental advocacy get their message out?” Miller says, but “we knew that if we went too far into the stats and science, people might get a little turned off.”

So, espousing Culturelle’s cause, the film features a fictitious talking head, another science expert, and a committed activist.

The talking head is “Gerty Evans, gut scientist” who blames gut ecosystem damage on human activity like sleep patterns, fast food, stress and “stressing about stress.”

The science expert is an animated lactobacillus -- the strain of good bacteria in Culturelle.

And the “gut advocate” is Dave “Gut Guy” Jones, who carries a sign spouting “Protect the Gut Microbiome.”

Speaking of signs, Culturelle has enlisted social media influencers like popular Instagrammer Dude with Sign as real-life gut microbiome advocates. Other influencers include TikTok healthy cooking star Emily Mariko.

Paid digital advertising is taking the form of :15 and :30 spots in the form of movie trailers that direct viewers to the movement’s landing page to view the main film. The brand has also run a paid post with The New YorkerviaThe New Yorker Brand Studio.

The campaign, which launched last week, will run at least through summer, Miller says,

Eight months ago, she recalls, “We were brought a brief that said, ‘break the category.’”

The result, rather than talking about the product’s healthy benefits, is “more of a category campaign telling people why probiotics matter, why the gut matters, and whey they should care…Then, they can come to you as the number one brand.”

At ProtectTheGut.com, consumers can “join the movement” by signing up for a Culturelle newsletter, which also nets them 25% off a brand purchase.