Hand-washing to prevent disease
Advertising agencies enlisted to promote hand-washing in effort to reduce infant mortality around the world.
Millions of children die each year as a result of diarreal diseases, half of which could be prevented with the regular use of soap. Dr. Valerie Curtis, Director of the Hygeine Center at the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine is promoting hand-washing with soap as a way to reduce child mortality in the developing world. Curtis has sought the help of advertising agencies to find a better way to encourage the hand-washing habit.
She sought out the help of people outside of the public health sphere to more effectively encourage soap use. Ad agencies would conduct research on the habits and contexts of their potential consumers; they did just that with the affected groups in the developing world. As a result, the message is changed from a clinical statement to a highly valuable proposition that has meaning in their life and context.
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