Safeguard: The Giant Bacteria

Credits & Description:

Category: Public Spaces
Advertiser: PROCTER & GAMBLE
Product/Service: SAFEGUARD
Agency: THE LEO BURNETT GROUP THAILAND
Chief Creative Officer: Sompat Trisadikun (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Executive Creative Director: Keeratie Chaimoungkalo (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Deputy Executive Creative Director: Paruj Daorai (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Art Director: Piti Pongrakananon (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Art Director: Paruj Daorai (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Art Director: Sompat Trisadikun (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Copywriter: Chatchai Butsabakorn (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Copywriter: Fuad Ahmad (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Account Service: Suthasi Sukpornsinchai (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Account Service: Patr Bhalakula (The Leo Burnett Group Thailand)
Photographer: Chub Nokkaew (Chubcheevit Studio)
Producer: Sukij Pongpisuth
Cameraman: Aphiwath Boonsin
Editor: Aphiwath Boonsin
Media placement: Outdoor Sculpture - Abandon Garbage Sites Around Bangkok Areas - 1 November 2011

Describe the brief from the client
Safeguard has always positioned itself as people’s guardian against bacteria. In the wake of the Bangkok floods, people were ignoring the garbage as they tried to reclaim their lives. Safeguard wanted to help spearhead the efforts to protect the city from a mounting public health crisis. The brand was looking for a quick response to the problem in order to be at the forefront of helping to protect Bangkok from dangerous bacteria.

Describe the challenges and key objectives
The 2011 Bangkok floods left 3m tons of garbage littered around the city. The government could not dispose of the garbage quickly, so the city faced an immanent public health crisis from the dangerous bacteria in the trash. Safeguard wanted to compel people to voluntarily help remove the rubbish, because no single organisation could deal with the trash alone. Only a concerted collective effort by everyone could solve the problem. However, people were ignoring the trash, and were busy dealing with the flood’s immediate effects on their lives. Safeguard needed to compel people to clean up their own neighbourhoods.

Describe how you arrived at the final design
Safeguard needed a fast and effective way to convince people to do something about the trash piles. The brand enlisted local artists and sent them to 23 trash sites around Bangkok, where they used rubbish to build gigantic bacteria sculptures. These large, attention-getting trash sculptures seemingly appeared out of nowhere and loomed over the streets. Each sculpture had speakers attached, which played frightening noises and described the dangers of bacteria. The pieces were also tagged with information directing people to the Clean Up Bangkok Facebook page, which became the city’s primary forum for volunteers to organise community cleaning activities.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
People noticed the trash sculptures immediately, and pictures of the giant bacteria sculptures spread virally online. The bacteria sculptures quickly catalysed a response from Bangkok’s citizens. 97 community-cleaning activities were organised through Clean Up Bangkok’s Facebook page. Thousands of volunteers showed up to participate in a concerted clean-up effort in the days after the sculptures appeared. During the clean-up activities, Safeguard distributed 5,000 bars of Safeguard soap to the volunteers who helped dispose of the trash. Thanks to the brand’s initiative, Bangkok avoided a public health crisis after the worst flooding in half a century.