• by Les Luchter , 5 hours ago

 
No, that’s not a derriere pictured above, although wipes brand Wet Ones wanted the 2.4 million followers of Instagram celebrity gossip page DeuxMoi to assume just that.

“An anonymously submitted photo of the ‘Summer House’ cast member just landed in our DMs and it’s definitely giving a very unfiltered view,” read Friday’s DeuxMoi text accompanying the supposedly risqué photo.

Following that sponsored post, DeuxMoi posted the Wet Ones reveal on Monday: yes, that was Kyle Cooke, star of the Bravo reality show, but no, the photo didn’t show his behind, but rather his hand. 

Along with the reveal, Wet Ones on Monday also spread its imaging and messaging around New York City with the launch of an out-of-home (OOH) campaign from Publicis’ BBH USA.

The OOH includes 100 LinkNYC digital kiosks, 60 transit shelters, 20 digital newsstands, a five-screen Times Square billboard, wild postings across 40 locations, two fully wrapped buses running eight-hour custom routes weekdays in midtown Manhattan, and six “Take a Wet One” boards with 30 wipes each, which will be replenished weekdays during October, for a total of some 4,000 samples being distributed

Noticeably absent from the OOH mix: any ads in NYC subway stations or train cars -- the result, Wet Ones says, of its ads being deemed too risqué.

Besides showing Cooke’s fingers, palms and knuckles composed to look like a rear-end view, the campaign features the line, “Just for hands. No ifs, ands or butts.”

Lest this all just seems like bawdy humor, Wet Ones cites a real reason for the campaign: a recent study by Publicis’ OnePulse in which half of 250 respondents admitted to using a hand wipe in an intimate area.

“Wet Ones has always been about hands,” explained Veronique Mura, GM-senior vice president, body & skin for brand parent Edgewell Personal Care, in a statement, adding that “As Wet Ones' first major campaign in years, we wanted to come back in a way that felt bold, unexpected and unmistakably us.”

The brand hasn’t forgotten consumers outside New York City , extending the campaign through social media, creator partnerships, and ”a user-generated challenge inviting fans to post their own ‘hand butt’ for a chance to be featured on the Times Square billboard.”

Wet Ones, a brand that’s been around for some 50 years, is now marketed by Edgewell, whose other products include Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic sunscreens, Edge shaving gel, and such razor brands as Schick and Wilkinson Sword.

In addition to his reality TV career, Kyle Cooke is also co-founder and CEO of beverage brand Loverboy.