Lifebuoy keeps the 'tree of life' alive

New campaign created by Lowe Lintas takes forward the brand's 'Help a child reach 5' pledge. The campaign will now be taken to Indonesia

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | June 17, 2014

Click on the image to watch the TVC.

Lifebuoy has lately been making the right kind of noise in the advertising circuit. Be it their Lifebuoy Roti campaign where they distributed rotis stamped with a reminder to wash hands at Kumbh Mela, or the Gondappa campaign which reminds viewers of the threat of diarrhoea. The latest from Lifebuoy is the 'Tree of Life' campaign which spins the story of Utari and her affection for a particular tree.

Created by Lowe Lintas, the campaign is an extension of their Gondappa campaign, in which the brand adopted the Gondappa village and undertook a pledge to help every child reach 5 years of age.

The present 'Tree of Life' campaign follows a mother's journey through love, hope and loss. It uses folklore to bring home the fact that handwashing is important to help children reach the age of 5.

Every 15 seconds, one child dies from diarrhoea or pneumonia, diseases that are preventable through the simple act of handwashing with soap. That is 1.7 million children every year! Lifebuoy has taken its handwashing behaviour change programmes to 183 million people across the world, and now it is committed to change the handwashing behaviour of a billion people by 2015. This is part of Unilever's commitment to help more than one billion people to improve their health and hygiene by 2020 under the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

The TVC opens with a young girl dancing around a tree, taking care of it, watering it, etc. She protects it from wayward kids, from birds, and talks to it. She even decorates it with paper craft, and shares her food. It is only later revealed that the tree signifies her child who has passed away.

The TVC further reveals that in Utari's village, the tradition dictates that a tree be planted when a child is born. However, due to diarrhoea and pneumonia, every day around 5,000 children under the age of 5 pass away. All that remains is the tree that had been planted. Now, Lifebuoy has taken the pledge from Gondappa's village to Utari's village. After the success at Thesgora, India, Lifebuoy will teach healthy hand washing habits to the villagers of Bitobe, Indonesia.

Samir Singh, Global Brand VP, Lifebuoy, said, “It is unacceptable that 1.7 million children die every year from infectious diseases when we have cost effective lifesaving solutions, such as handwashing with soap readily available. We wanted to tell the world the Lifebuoy story in a deeply emotional way and turn the 'Help a child reach 5' campaign into something personal and powerful.”

The TVC:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/

Sohini.Sen@bestmediainfo.com

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