Charmin’ Guide to Public Restrooms

I don’t know about you, but as I’ve gotten older my “ick” factor for public places has grown exponentially. I’m not quite OCD just yet. And the day may not even come since I’ve just discovered this magnificent little tool that makes recommendations for location and cleanliness of public restrooms. You can use SitOrSquat.com online or more practical, download the app to use it on your iPhone or Blackberry. This wiki developed by Charmin, the toilet paper brand, enables users to locate public toilets, upload their own suggestions and rate the ones that are already listed. This app is still new and seems to be preloaded with all the Starbucks around the US. Well, could be worse choices than a Starbucks’ restroom… Ten countries have more than 50,000 public restrooms listed so far (US, Canada, France, UK and China…). If you are traveling with small children, you NEED this.

This is a brilliant bit of true contextual branding on Charmin’s part. I am grateful that a company has finally conceived a marketing “gimmick” that is more than a gimmick and an actual useful mobile application. And to know that Charmin is not even in the commercial end of the TP business just makes this even more interesting. They’ve got my business. I’ll be squeezing the Charmin for a long time.