Who are the Cotton runners?

Oct. 26, 2016

Are you a runner? If so, you may have noticed a strange pattern as of late – in the bottom of the leader boards from races all over Europe, one thing was prominent; runners named Cotton always came in last place. What is this odd coincidence? Well, cotton will slow you down, if you ask sports brand Björn Borg, who wanted to put their new Performance Underwear in focus during the campaign “Don’t run in cotton”.

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Jonas Lindberg Nyvang, Marketing Director Björn Borg, Said: “It does not make sense to use cotton underwear while running when you can wear a superior product that doesn’t slow you down. We wanted to show this in a tongue-in-cheek way, through appointing real people in different countries named Cotton and having them finishing last in different races”.

“Cotton Runners” strengthen the main Performance underwear campaign messages “Don’t run in cotton” and “Cotton will slow you down”. Björn Borg appointed people named Cotton and gave them one assignment: compete in a race and finish last. That way, Björn Borg had Cotton runners in 10K races, half marathons and full marathons. The races were documented, and the name Cotton appeared in the very bottom in every result list during the period.

Comments Benjamin Cotton, one of the Cotton Runners: “When Björn Borg first contacted me, I thought it was a joke and, to be honest, I felt a bit offended. I was literally asked to be a loser! But once I heard the idea I laughed and thought it was a very clever execution to explain this new product. My wife Zandra Cotton also ended up participating and we loved both the product and the experience. From now on, we certainly won’t run in cotton”.

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Read more about the project here: http://www.bjornborg.com/se/new/performance-underwear

Björn Borg Performance Underwear can be found in Björn Borg stores, bjornborg.com and select retailers.

The lead agency behind the Don’t Run In Cotton campaign is Round & Round. Production company is Crisp Film.