Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has created some of the advertising industry’s most enduring icons, from Mr. Clean and Mr. Whipple to, most recently, a family of cartoon bears for Charmin.
The company wants to add something new to the list.
Herbicides don’t typically rely on animated spokes characters to promote themselves to consumers, but P&G is aiming to change that with the introduction of one of the new products in its portfolio: Bruce, a cheerful dog who first appears in Basketball Tog with a pack of famous college dogs, replacing Spruce. As we get closer to March Madness, it gets more attention. One of the great things about spruce is that it’s pet-friendly.
“We have an adorable mascot,” Spruce senior brand director Jessica Etelson said in a recent interview. But the intrigue behind his debut was detailed, she says. “We debated: Is he on a leash? Is he on a collar? We decided no. He’s part of the family, so it’s okay to loosen his tie a little and take the collar off.”
Bruce the Spruce will initially appear in four new ads throughout March and April, pitting him against the canine mascots of four NCAA teams: Fresno State, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Connecticut. The spot is meant to draw attention to the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament, which dominates much of the national conversation. Kirk Herbstreit and his golden retriever Peter also appear in the commercial.
The Madison Avenue mascot was all the rage a decade later. Some of the biggest national advertisers, including Kellogg’s, General Mills, McDonald’s, and PepsiCo, grew up with cartoonish advertising characters making headlines in dozens of television ads. The supply of such works has been in short supply in recent years, as marketers have increasingly turned to interactive media, including streaming and social, to convince consumers to close deals as they seek to drive awareness and recall of their products and services. More and more ads are asking viewers to visit a website, call a doctor, email a request for information, and most importantly, make a purchase. Once advertisers have the money, creating stories with characters may not be such a big deal in modern pitch craft.
But some advertising people love their characters. The insurance industry, filled with big names like Geico, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, and State Farm, continues to gain momentum with works like Jake and Flo, and animated features like Gecko and Limu Emu. Recent Super Bowl planter and Instacart commercials are filled with scenes of classic advertising mascots interacting with each other.
Bruce will help remind consumers that spruce can also be used around pets. Pets “are part of our families, but they haven’t had much say or influence in the products used in the outdoor spaces where they play and interact with their owners,” Etelson said. You can also add happier notes about product categories that encourage conversations that might otherwise result in negative emotions. Some believe herbicides and herbicides are dangerous to consumers and the environment, a position driven by lawsuits filed against Roundup, formerly Monsanto and now part of Bayer.
The new mascot is not free to act as he pleases. The executive said that the images of the products actually being used will not be depicted. “That’s not a dog’s job, is it?” she says. And he intends to convey emotions through actions and expressions rather than words. “Rather than actually speaking, he uses dialogue and physical comedy in a similar way to a real dog. We want to stay true to the pet experience while giving him a way to express and articulate himself,” she added.
Proctor applies proven marketing techniques to non-traditional categories. The company is better known for its toothpaste, detergents, and deodorants than it is for lawn care. But the company made its first marketing foray into the category in 2025, running a Spruce commercial in certain southern U.S. markets during Super Bowl LIX in hopes of attracting warm-weather consumers who were beginning to focus on managing their wealth for the year. The company adopted a similar strategy in 2026.
The company believes it can expect new sales. “When you look at households of color, when you look at young demographics, when you look at women’s households, you see that this category is largely underrepresented,” Etelson says.
