Lifebuoy makes a moving appeal with Muthu’s story

Hindustan Unilever’s soap brand Lifebuoy has launched a social media campaign ‘Saving Lives’, inviting people to pledge support for the health initiatives it has undertaken on ground. The three-minute film has been created by Lowe Lintas and Partners and is currently on YouTube and Facebook.

The film set in a village starts with a small boy (Muthu) spotting handprints in the mud outside his house. Curious, he sets out to follow the trail. He then spots his father who is walking on his hands across the town. He begins to walk along and very soon other villagers join them. His father continues his journey across the fields with the size of the procession increasing with musicians too walking along. A young lady, who seems like a tourist from the city, sees the procession from a bus and is intrigued. She joins them, trying to find out what is happening. The procession climbs on top of a hill, the man still walking on his hands over the rocky terrain. Finally, they reach their destination - a temple. The man pays his respects to God before finally putting his feet on the ground. He explains to the priest that his son Muthu has turned five. The young lady asks the bystander what the big deal about turning five was. The bystander explains that Muthu is the man’s only child to have survived till the age of five.

The film ends with the super announcing: “Every year 2 million children under the age of 5 die of infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia. A lot of deaths can be prevented by the simple act of washing hands with soap. Lifebuoy has reached 130 million people across the world, to teach them healthy hand washing habits. We now take our life saving mission to Thesgora, a village in India with one of the highest rates of diarrhoea. Help us celebrate the fifth birthday of every single child in Thesgora by 2015. Take the pledge on facebook.com/lifebuoy and save lives.”              

On the initiative, Samir Singh, global vice president, Lifebuoy, said, “Lifebuoy’s goal is to change the hand-washing behaviours of a billion people by 2015 in order to help save lives and reduce disease. On top of the work we have been doing on ground for the last 10 years, we needed people to support our cause in huge numbers to reach our goal.”

“We wanted to tell the world the Lifebuoy story in a deeply emotional way. Our brief to Lowe was to translate the statistic of ‘2 million children still die in the world before the age of 5 due to preventable infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia’ into something real, personal and powerful. And through this film, they have done just that,” he added.

R Balki, chairman and chief creative officer, Lowe Lintas, said, “A small act like washing hands with Lifebuoy can save a child's life. This message needs to reach far and wide. So, we created this campaign that can open one's mind to this amazing message. A campaign that moves people to the extent that they care to share it with others".

Amer Jaleel, national creative director, Lowe Lintas, said, “This is the communication leg of a huge health initiative by Lifebuoy. The brand has taken up the task of educating people about hygiene and the importance of washing their hands. Lifebuoy has taken up the challenge by adopting a village - Thesgora - to wipe out diarrhoea deaths by 2015. With the help of this campaign it wants to create more awareness amongst people and get them to pledge their support.”

“We wanted this ad to evoke a meaningful response towards the initiative and not to say ‘What a beautiful ad’. It's a real, true and honest programme and the work should embody that. Judging from the responses we have from people and industry alike, I think we've managed to achieve this,” he added.

Jaleel said that the campaign will go on air on TV in the near future in shorter edits of 90 seconds.

Credits
Client: HUL (Lifebuoy)
Creative agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners
Chief creative officer: R Balki
National creative director: Amer Jaleel