Help A Child Reach The Age Of Five
Unilever’s soap brand, Lifebuoy, has launched a social media campaign ‘Help a chlld reach the age of 5' inviting people to pledge support for the health initiatives it has undertaken on the ground in India. A skilfully produced three-minute film has been created by the agency led by Creative Director R.Balki and is designed to live primarily on line. The film has had over 1.6 MILLION views so far.
The film, set in a village called Thesgora, 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 and local people joining, curious to find out the destination.
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.”
This campaign joins a body of work looking at how hand washing can impact the tragic statistics listing children who die annually from diarrhoea related illnesses. 6000 children die daily and over 270M school days are lost every year due to illness.
