The Campaign

In 2013, Dengue, the deadly mosquito-borne fever reached epidemic proportions in Sri Lanka. ‘Mawbima,’ an up and coming mass-market newspaper, wanted to make a difference. Our idea was to mix citronella essence, a natural repellent, with ink, and create the world’s first mosquito repellant newspaper. Mawbima’s campaign began with print ads and social media as well as posters with bus stop posters printed with our mosquito-repellant ink. Prevention patches were given to kids and informative articles on the illness ran in the paper. The campaign then concluded with the printing of the world’s first mosquito-repellant newspaper. Mawbima saw sales increase sales by 30% and readership rose by 300,000 people – more than the paper ever expected. The innovative paper featured in over 90 international media outlets and earned thousands of likes, shares and comments on social media.

The Brief

To educate middle and lower-class Sri Lankans on the seriousness of the Dengue epidemic, and to make them realise that the first step to avoid being infected is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, especially in the morning and evening.

Creative Execution

We started the campaign by creating letters in the style of the Mawbima masthead. Each character stopped a dengue mosquito from passing through. These letters were then used in press ads as well as posters at bus shelters, where they were printed with our innovative mosquito-repellent ink, so people wouldn’t be bitten. The paper also ran articles on preventing Dengue and gave school kids mosquito-prevention patches featuring the letters we created.

Despite a bigger print run, the paper sold out by 10am and increased sales by 30%, educating and protecting an additional 300,000 people – more than Mawbima ever expected. But its influence didn’t stop there. Mawbima’s innovative paper was commended by over 90 international media outlets, including the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post. On social media, it earned thousands of likes and shares as well as high profile comments, including one from Bill Gates. The paper was even cited as an example of how the print industry could revive itself and publications around the world have shown a massive interest in copying the idea.

By mixing citronella essence, a highly effective natural repellent with ink, we could turn Mawbima into the world's first mosquito-repellent newspaper - a paper where every letter of every word helped people stop dengue. We could also use the ink for posters at bus shelters to stop people from being bitten. We believed innovative executions as well as informative articles in the papers would get people and the media talking and build a better understanding of the disease.