Branding: Camay girl grows up for Philippines' return

The soap brand, which has been absent from store shelves since 2000, has been relaunched in three variants - Romantic, Elegant and Tender - with packaging that features floral labels to suggest the product's fragrance and moisturising properties.

In addition, the Camay girl, who personified the brand during its 20-year reign from the 1950s to the '70s as the Philippines' most popular beauty soap, has also grown up. "The Filipino woman has evolved and so has the Camay girl," said Peegy Yparraguirre, account manager of Leo Burnett.

"She is the mirror image of the new Filipino woman. She plays multiple roles and creates her own world where she is comfortable in her own skin, and defines beauty on her own terms."

Past Camay girls were largely coy beauties and many went on to become celebrities in their own right.

In the relaunch TV spot, the Camay girl drops her coyness and is instead portrayed as womanly and sexy. The spot opens with her partner making plans over the phone to go out with his friends to a basketball game.

The Camay girl slips into the shower and lathers herself with Camay's 'blend of international fragrances and moisturiser', emerging fresh and irresistible to her partner, who quickly makes excuses to stay home instead.

The final voice-over adds: 'Soft, scented, sexy skin by the all-new Camay Collection'.

The three variants are available in 60g sachets as well as 90g and 125g boxes. Prices start at 10.5 pesos (20 cents US) for the sachets, rising to 27 pesos for the largest box. The Elegant variant is packaged in a deep purple pack, while a deep red hue has been used for Romantic and a light beige for Tender. Packaging was created by US-based design company Girvin.

Camay will compete with Palmolive and Unilever's Dove in the beauty soap category, which has expanded in recent years with the arrival of papaya-based soaps, which offer skin-whitening properties and double up as beauty soaps. Safeguard - the overall category leader, which is positioned as the soap for the whole family - and Palmolive have seen papaya soap rivals, chiefly Biolink from local company Splash, eat into their market share.