Why P&G’s Native deodorant sponsored viral dating series The Button

The entertainment company has worked with several brands across its other series, including American Girl and PBS’ “Sesame Street” for shows on its child-oriented YouTube channel HiHo, as well as LeBron James’ tequila brand Lobos 1707 for its “Truth or Drink” game series, Smith said. 

In just five months, “The Button” has quickly become one of Cut Media’s best-performing series, not only on Cut—the company’s adult-centric YouTube channel with over 11.4 million subscribers—but also across Cut Media’s other social channels such as TikTok and Instagram. Several episodes of “The Button” have amassed millions of views—including the first of the Native-sponsored episodes, which attracted over a million viewers in only one week, Smith said.

The start of each Native-sponsored episode features a brief series of clips showing behind-the-scenes footage of contestants sampling Native’s holiday deodorants and lotions, as well as the button’s robotic voice stating, “Will our hopeful singles match with someone who’s naughty? Nice? Let’s find out.” And along with occasional product placement within the episodes themselves, Native’s naughty-or-nice campaign messaging continues into the rounds of speed dating.

In one episode, for example, the contestants are blindfolded, and the button encourages two contestants to smell each other and determine whether they think the other person is “naughty” or “nice.” In another episode, the button asks a contestant reeling from an awkward interaction, “Are you sweating? Do you need some deodorant?”