Activation Campaign
Client Hindustan Unilever Limited
Brand Lifebuoy Soaps
Agency Ogilvy
Brief
 Every 2 minutes, a child dies of diarrhoea in India. Lifebuoy believes the simple act of hand washing with soap at critical occasions can prevent this. One of the most critical being, before eating meals. In this instance, Lifebuoy wanted to reach out to school children in rural India, where hygiene habits are poor, and encourage them to wash their hands with soap before the mid-day meal.
Cultural Context In India, people typically eat with their hands. Many people, especially in rural areas, don’t wash their hands prior to eating, unless it is visibly dirty/grimy. Children are more used to this habit & as their immunity is lower than adults, they fall sick more easily. In rural schools, many a times, handpumps are still used to draw water, which is cumbersome & further deters kids from using them.
Results
 1500 forgotten hand pumps in rural schools were brought to life with rocking horses. We also distributed a month’s supply of soap bars for free, to help build the habit of handwashing. School authorities and parents alike appreciated the idea, as children became self-motivated to wash their hands and daily reminders were no longer necessary. All this with a minimal budget of USD 19,000.
Solution
 To effectively communicate to the TG, we decided to use their language: the language of PLAY. Studying how a hand pump works, we realized that it closely resembles the working of a rocking horse – one of the first toys that a child gets! The idea was simple: Turn the hard-to-use hand pumps into a toy. We adapted a rocking horse & mounted it on hand pumps thereby making them easy & fun to operate.