• by Karl Greenberg , March 12, 2008

Kleenex, which has been the official supplier of facial tissue to the U.S. Olympic Team since 2002, is activating its involvement in the Summer Olympics in Beijing with a documentary-style video. The film, "Let it out," takes its name from Kleenex's current brand campaign, which launched last year, via JWT, N.Y.

The film extends that theme of letting one's emotions free by showing a succession of fans talking about their favorite, most emotionally evocative moments from Olympics past.

Angela Fisher, senior brand manager, says the effort is the company's first in the realm of branded entertainment. "We know the Olympics are an emotional time, and we wanted to capture that," she says.

Produced by Lookalike Productions, the film will comprise footage taken at spontaneous events in different cities in which the company will place in high-traffic areas the blue couch that is featured in "Let it out" commercials, along with a box of Kleenex, and get people to sit on the sofa and recount their most emotionally affective Olympic moments. Fisher adds that Olympic legends and hopefuls will participate as well.

"It will be spontaneous; we want to keep true to the documentary style," says Fisher. "So it does need to be real. What the whole campaign has been about are non-judgmental, genuine, real people. Even in our advertising we have real people, not paid actors."

The tour, following a similar effort last year in which the company took the emblematic blue couch to seven cities, runs from April to June. It will visit both cities and U.S. Olympic Team Trials events. Broadcast journalist Paul Hochman will serve as interlocutor and Julie Foudy, who was a three-time medalist in soccer, will be spokesperson for the program.

Fisher says after the film's premiere at USA House in Beijing during the August games, the company will have a media plan stateside for showing the film in top metropolitan areas. It will also be on letitout.com.

During broadcasts of the Olympic events, Kleenex will not do traditional advertising, per Fisher. "But we will be promoting the premiere of the movie in non-traditional formats: buzz, word of mouth, viral and marketing."

She adds that the documentary format was the right way to go, versus traditional TV ads, because "Olympics viewers are interested in the grandeur of it all--the back stories, the emotional stories. You can't capture that in 30 seconds," she says.