Crest Takes to Social Media to Show How Nasty Your Yellow Teeth Look [VIDEO]

Procter & Gamble's Crest 3D White oral care brand is taking a social media-first strategy for a new campaign that graphically depicts the perils of having yellow teeth.

The brand unleashed the first in a series of six online-only videos on Tuesday. The ad, called "Pretty Girl," shows a fetching young woman entering a party in a slinky black dress. The triumphant moment turns sour, however, when her smiles reveals a row of amber teeth. The push for the sub-brand's line of Whitestrips and other whitening products will be executed entirely on social media, says Ernesto Levy, P&G's North America oral care marketing director. "Consumers are there [in social media] and we want to talk to them where they are," he says, adding that the brand wants to facilitate two-way communication. The ad will be distributed via the brand's YouTube channel and its Facebook Page.

At P&G the template for reinvention via social media is Old Spice and its breakthrough 2010 "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign. But that's proven a hard act to follow. Like Old Spice, Crest 3D White hopes to swap its conventional, TV-centric approach to something more visceral and provocative to prompt discussion and shares.