For Kleenex, a Song and Dance to Sneeze To ADVERTISING for Kleenex, the brand that invented the facial tissue category 88 years ago, has had little need to provide tips on how to use the product. But in an advertising and marketing campaign directed at mothers and children, Kleenex is promoting a tissue routine to help prevent colds from spreading. A new commercial features a classroom full of children doing a choreographed dance and a song, "Shield Sneeze Swish." The message: when children feel a sneeze coming on, they should cover their noses, and then, after sneezing, dispose of the tissue - swish - in a wastebasket. "This back to school, there's a new routine," sing the students, who are about 8 to 13 years old, in the commercial. Grab a Kleenex tissue to help keep your hands clean, every time you sneeze no matter where. Ya gotta shield, sneeze, swish like you just don't care. Far from the Hokey Pokey, the routine features the sort of hip-hop moves that Beyoncé or Rihanna would perform with backup dancers in a music video. For "shield," the dancers raise one arm up while holding a tissue, for "sneeze," they bring the tissue to their noses, and for "swish," they mimic shooting a jump shot. While adopting the routine will please school nurses no matter what brand students use, the commercial does make a case for choosing Kleenex by highlighting that it features "sneeze shield," a coating on all its tissues that the brand claims helps prevent mucus from getting through to hands. The spot, by JWT New York, part of the JWT unit of WPP, was introduced on the Kleenex Web site and on YouTube on Tuesday, and will begin running on television on July 16. The campaign is timed to begin with back-to-school displays that appear all too soon - in early July - in retailers like Target and Walmart. Kleenex, a Kimberly-Clark brand, declined to reveal its projected expenditures for the campaign. Last year, the brand spent $33.5 million on advertising, with a rival, Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, spending $29.3 million, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. Some consumers have been steering away from advertised tissue brands during the recession, and opting for cheaper store brands instead. In the 52 weeks that ended June 10, Kleenex's share of the facial tissue market was 45.4 percent, a drop of 1.7 points from 2011, and Puffs" share was 24.4 percent, a drop of 0.4 points, according to the SymphonyIRI group, a market research firm whose data does not include Walmart. During the same period, store brands increased their share of the market to 24.9 percent, a gain of 2.7 points. Martin Soderlund, the brand manager at Kleenex, said that while the brand had been manufacturing all of its tissues with "sneeze shield" for four years, it had not made the innovation a primary selling point, focusing instead on the attribute most highly valued by consumers: softness. But because consumer research with mothers indicated they embraced germ abatement, Kleenex decided to tie a back-to-school campaign to the feature. "I don't think that from the beginning we knew how important it was to moms," said Mr. Soderlund, referring to sneeze shield. But the more we got feedback about this, the more we played it up, because it's very important for moms to send their kids back to school healthy and cared for and knowing that they've done everything they can. And while all brands trumpet softness, this claim is Kleenex's alone. Concerning both store brands and other advertised brands, Mr. Soderlund said, "We think we have some things that make us stand out and we have to make sure we inform the consumer." Music videos with dancers are so prominent on YouTube that they have spawned popular videos by users, especially younger ones, performing the same dances. Jim Hord, executive creative director at JWT New York, said that was an impetus for the new commercial. "There's a real trend with kids these days of taking videos of themselves mimicking dance moves," said Mr. Hord, who added that instructional videos that break down dance routines also are popular, specifically noting one with more than 6.9 million views that teaches the routine from a "Party Rock Anthem" video by LMAO. A new "Shield Sneeze Swish" section of the Kleenex Web site features a video from the set of the new commercial where its choreographer, Jenny Griffin, demonstrates the routine with some of its young dancers. "We've tried to put plenty of sugarcoating on it so kids aren't really recognizing it's a health message," said Mr. Hord. On July 31, Kleenex will promote the effort with an event in New York featuring Ariana Grande, who stars in "Victorious" on Nickelodeon. Kleenex also will advertise the new campaign in Jump In!, a magazine circulated to about 1.5 million parents through the Parent Teacher Association and other parent groups. Through a partnership with School Family Media, which publishes Jump In!, Kleenex also will be inserting "Shield Sneeze Swish" activity booklets in gift bags circulated at meetings of parent organizations. Along with the tissue aisle, Kleenex also will be included in back-to-school displays. Jen Drexler, a co-founder of Just Ask a Woman, a firm that specializes in marketing to women, was impressed with the Kleenex campaign. "There is a collective anxiety around parents for September, when you know as soon as school starts, your entire family gets sick without fail," said Ms. Drexler, who currently serves as a vice president at the Insight Strategy Group, a marketing and research firm. "I like this cheerful, proactive message of, "Hey, maybe we won't all get sick if people sneeze right." "