A dOt with a mission

What’s the best way to drive home a message or get people to adopt a practice? One way is to integrate it with something that is a part of their life, or create an incentive for them to do so. There have been quite a few campaigns that have managed to do that and the latest among these is the Jeevan Bindi or Life Saving Dot, launched as a pilot project in Maharashtra and Delhi.

The Nashik-based Neelvasant Medical Foundation & Research Center wanted to find a way to address the iodine deficiency among women. Millions of women across rural India are affected by breast cancer, fibrocystic breast disease and complications during pregnancy. Studies reveal that many of these cases are linked to iodine deficiency. There are supplements and treatments to address this but they are unaffordable to these women.

In stepped Grey for Good, advertising group Grey Singapore’s philanthropic arm, and Talwar Bindi to collaborate with the foundation to develop iodine patches that would serve as bindis to deliver the women their daily dose of iodine. Since mid-March, the bindis have been distributed to Badli village (near New Delhi), Niphad, Peth and Kopergaon/Sinner rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra.

India’s salt iodisation mission dates back to the late 1950s when a study in the Kangra valley established iodine deficiency as the cause of goitre and recommended that adding it to salt was the most economic and viable means of preventing it. In the ’80s, private manufacturers too were allowed to iodise salt and it also found a place in the public distribution system in many States.

However, it is still an elusive commodity for many sections of the poor. Dr Prachi Pawar, President, Neelvasant Foundation, tells cat.a.lyst that the families in the project’s area used uniodised crystal salt. The daily recommended dose of iodine is 150-200 mcg. Around 80-90 per cent of Indian women wear bindis . Using them as devices to deliver iodine through the skin was seen as a simple and effective way to get around the problem. Sub-dermal delivery and absorption of iodine is a tried and tested technique, she says. The iodine is mixed with the adhesive on the bindis . The women are given a month’s supply. The project is expected to scale up in the second phase. Manufacture of the bindis by the women as a revenue-generation strategy is also on the radar, says Dr Pawar.

Other missionary campaigns such as this include the Lucky Iron Fish, the brainchild of a Canadian researcher working in iron-deficient Cambodia. Cast-iron cookware, iron supplements or iron-rich food such as red meat and legumes were too costly for many Cambodian households.

He failed to persuade the women to place a piece of iron in their cooking pots as it would provide iron and prevent anaemia. Eventually, he hit upon the idea of a cast-iron fish – a certain species being considered a symbol of good luck – and commissioned their manufacture. This strategy resulted in immediate acceptance. It was placed in everyone’s cooking pots and there was a rapid rise in iron levels. In 2012, this turned into a social marketing initiative when another Canadian researcher set up a company called The Lucky Iron Fish Project to make these fish, employing Cambodians, and selling them or distributing them for free through non-governmental organizations.

In South Africa, Young & Rubicam worked with Blikkiesdorp4hope, an NGO backed by The Safety Lab, to get children to wash their hands and prevent communicable diseases such as typhoid and diarrhoea. It came up with a see-through soap housing a toy, which the kids could get their hands on only as the soap wore out, creating an incentive for them to get scrubbing.

In Brazil, Nivea ran magazine ads for its sunscreen which doubled up as a child-tracking device. The tracker was to be worn like a wrist watch, and functioned with the help of a downloadable app. Once the child went out of the predetermined range, the parents would be warned.

Closer home, during the Kumbh Mela a couple of years ago, Lifebuoy, in a brand campaign driving social change, reminded pilgrims to wash their hands before they sat down to a meal – the reminder was inscribed on the rotis served. All of these campaigns went on to win several accolades and generated much interest.

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