The mere mention of K-Y jelly is bound to provoke a few giggles, even among the product's mature female buyers. To update the brand with younger women and perhaps lessen its cultural taboo, marketers created a fun little flip book entitled Modern Girls Guide Everyday Uses for K-Y.

The pink booklet, created as a pr vehicle that consumers can order or download off K-Y's Web site, contains such previously untapped applications as a skin moisturizer and a plant leaf polisher. It also suggests using K-Y to "lubricate wheels," "slide in an earring" or "move large furniture across wood floors."

Stories about how people use K-Y had been around for more than a decade, "just like we've known forever that women use Preparation H under their eyes," said Danielle Devine, vp-communications for Johnson & Johnson's personal products unit, which makes K-Y. She said the idea for the booklet came from an "unofficial Web site that had been set up for posting ideas.

J&J created the guide with Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field, holding a splashy launch party in New York in June. "We got Pat to solicit ideas from her friends," said Devine. Designer Betsey Johnson recommended using K-Y instead of hair gel, while Ivy Supersonic suggested it could "remove adhesive price tags." Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes proposed using K-Y for a cold compress. The effort received rave reviews from women's magazines and even garnered a writeup in The Wall Street Journal.

Now, say goodbye to K-J jelly and hello to the new K-Y Ultra Gel and Warming Liquid. "We want K-Y to be thought of for intimacy enhancement," said Devine, not merely "a solution to an embarrassing problem."

Published in Brandweek, 12/1/03, by Christine Bittar.