Children’s Illustrations Get a Dark and Playful Twist in Duracell’s Child Safety Campaign

Battery brand Duracell today unveiled a fun out-of-home campaign highlighting its innovative product safety feature, coating its lithium coin batteries with a repulsive taste to discourage kids from swallowing them.

Bitter Truths, developed by integrated creative agency VML UK, aims to target parents and showcase Duracell's bitter coating technology while highlighting the brand’s commitment to safety.

Due to the increasing use of Lithium Coin batteries in everyday products such as scales, key fobs, remote controls and flameless candles, the number of child ingestion accidents is on the rise. Research shows that the number of related accidents in households across the globe has more than quadrupled since 2002.

Duracell is working hard to tackle this issue as the only Lithium Coin battery supplier with BITREX technology designed to help prevent ingestion. The non-toxic substance, which is also the most bitter on earth, leaves a repulsive taste that encourages babies and toddlers to spit out the battery to help avoid swallowing.

Bitter Truths highlights this technology through a series of out-of-home and social executions with the end-line “some things are to bitter for kids to swallow”. These playful illustrations are designed to juxtapose childhood innocence with life's harsher realities… or bitter truths.

"Child Safety is a key issue for Duracell. We wanted to take a bold approach to communicate this serious message," said Marco Montanaro, associate marketing director at Duracell. “So, we’ve struck close to home. We knew that was what’s needed to cut through all the safety messages out in the world… with creative that might make some people feel uncomfortable - crafting something that is not only visually impactful but humorously resonates with parents everywhere with its tongue-in-cheek approach.”

Working with celebrated children's illustrators, such as David Litchfield (creator of the best-selling The Bear & The Piano) and Maxine Vee (a Canadian artist known for her work with Disney), and 3D animators Arcade Studio, the campaign presents whimsical childhood-style artwork with unexpected twists to deliver a powerful message about battery safety.

The campaign aims to make maximum impact with the placement of digital out-of-home executions, supported by a social media campaign designed to amplify awareness of this important safety feature.

"People generally ignore safety messages, so we decide to speak in a way that parents of young children wouldn’t ignore. We created a set of innocent kids' illustrations from cartoons and bedtime stories, but within them sits a bitter truth - designed to capture the parents attention and tell them about this incredible safety feature," concluded Ryan McManus, chief creative officer at VML UK."