Dulcolax Employs Princesses to Take the Taboo Out of Pooping

The 'Pooping Princess' campaign introduces an unconventional set of princess characters shown sitting happily in their gowns going #2. It seeks to build an enduring relationship with women – and ultimately help reduce harmful stigmas that make young girls shy away from using the bathroom in public.

A new study commissioned by Dulcolax found that nearly a quarter of women in Portugal feel embarrassed talking about poo. It found that 77% of women say they’ve experienced constipation, and over a million of those aged 18 to 34 believe the stigma around pooping they experienced as girls still keeps them away from the potty when they really need it.

The campaign is running across social feeds, and 200+ digital OOH placements nationwide throughout Portugal. On social, a real-life Instagram AR filter allows users to see themselves as their own versions of pooping princesses. In addition, the campaign includes a 'The Princess and the Poo' book, created in collaboration with Weber Shandwick, that depicts princess characters unapologetically announcing they need to poo while in various every day and unexpected scenarios, from practicing yoga to giving a speech and even deep-sea diving.

To pull off the effort, MRM became the world’s first agency to access a custom GenAI model with Adobe that was needed to create a truly diverse set of modern-day princess characters that defy stereotypical depictions of 'perfection.'

"While creating this campaign, we discovered that even AI got the poo taboo, so we partnered with Adobe to help create better inputs and change the way generative AI imagines princesses pooping - opening the diversities of race, size, and a variety of other factors for the princess characters behind this campaign. This idea gives us the incredible opportunity to demystify stereotypes behind perfection and princess-like behaviours that are imparted on young girls,” said Dogura Kozonoe, chief creative officer at MRM Brazil. 

This collaboration extends the momentum of IPG’s announcement as the first company to integrate Adobe GenStudio into its own marketing technology platform.

Women surveyed in the Dulcolax study specifically recall being told pooping was 'dirty' during their childhood. As a result, some of these women also admitted that they now stop themselves from going to the toilet until they’re home. These feelings and behaviours could put them at risk of constipation.  In addition, over a third of women feel most embarrassed to poop on a romantic date (35%); when travelling on public transport (34%); and almost a third in a social situation e.g., bar, café, restaurant (31%).