Vaseline has announced it will serve as the Official Nipple Protector of the TCS London Marathon on April 26, with more than 59,000 participants expected at the Start Line.
As part of its partnership with the event, Vaseline will distribute free products to participants at the TCS London Marathon Running Show, running April 22–25. On race day, products will also be available at “Nip Stops” positioned along the 26.2-mile/42.195km course.
The activation is part of ‘The Nipple Sponsorship,’ a global initiative that launched in March to address nipple chafing — commonly referred to as “runner’s nipple” — which the brand describes as one of long-distance running’s most common and painful issues. According to Ogilvy Singapore, approximately two in three long-distance runners who log more than 40 miles/65km per week suffer from chafed and bleeding nipples, out of an estimated 1.1 million runners worldwide who complete a marathon each year.
The campaign was created by Ogilvy Singapore, with its creative strategy drawing on an insight from the ‘Vaseline Verified’ platform — an initiative through which the brand validated community-submitted product hacks. Among those submissions, nipple protection for runners surfaced as one of the most frequently cited and effective applications of Vaseline Jelly.
The initiative has included activations at major running events and local run clubs across the UK, Barcelona, Madrid, Caracas, Rotterdam, Singapore, Sydney, and Hong Kong, with additional locations set to be added.
“‘The Nipple Sponsorship’ recognises a hack trusted for decades,” said Nathalia Amadeu, Global Brand Director, Vaseline, Unilever.
“This isn’t about one race or one city. It’s about Vaseline showing up for every runner, on every course, at every distance, and making sure no one suffers a pain that was always preventable. We’re here to protect nipples, globally, and we’re not shy about saying it.”
“Vaseline Verified showed us the power of truly hearing what communities are saying, and what came back, loudly and consistently, was runners talking about nipple protection,” said Aanchal Sethi, Asia Managing Director, Unilever, Ogilvy Singapore.
“That insight didn’t come from a strategy deck, it came from real people sharing real hacks across the globe. This work is the natural evolution of that: taking a community truth that already existed at scale and building a brand platform around it. When you listen this closely, the idea finds you.”
