The Campaign

This acne awareness campaign titled "Make the Bumpy Life Smooth" was run in order to inform people that it is not overdoing to see a dermatologist to treat their acne. It was quite challenging to keep our main idea while following the criteria of Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, but we managed to implement the impacting campaign by transforming Takashi Yoshida, a comedian, into a movie star, smoothing out his acne-pitted face with special make-up. It created a big stir both on the Internet and broadcast media, and it succeeded in encouraging many acne sufferers to see a dermatologist.

The Brief

Our objective was to raise the low percentage rate of acne sufferers in Japan who seek treatment. Our main target was women, since skin care is generally one of the greatest concerns for them. The scope was nationwide.

Creative Execution

As the very first implementation of this campaign, we convened a press conference of comedian Yoshida with special make-up on as a movie star. Right after the press conference, the TV commercial of movie star Yoshida was aired nationwide. Even though it was aired only for a month, it became viral with people spreading the word on the Internet. Those who searched about the commercial would eventually visit the campaign website so they learn about this acne awareness. The impact of this campaign was very strong, and it was really easy for people to understand because it featured a popular comedian who is very well-known for having an acne-pitted face in Japan, and also because people had never imagined seeing him having smooth skin.

The campaign received coverage by more than 150 TV stations and the newspapers. Campaign recognition rate was 71% (overall), and it reached 81% among women (main target). In the month when the campaign was first implemented, the number of web searches for the keywords "acne, dermatologist" showed 194% increase from previous month. The percentage of persons seeking treatment for acne jumped from 15.4% to 26.3%.

In order to inform people that it is best to consult a dermatologist to get rid of their acne, we wanted to feature someone who most everybody in Japan know that s/he suffers from acne, so Takashi Yoshida, one half of Japan's most popular comedy duo, was chosen because he has a severely acne-pitted face. We transformed him into a movie star, making his skin silky smooth with special make-up to demonstrate how life-changing it is to clear up acne. Since people know how bumpy his skin is very well, it was really shocking for them to see his skin looking smooth and clear, and it was highly newsworthy for the media, which is why this campaign is appropriate to PR category.