The Campaign

Listerine placed OOH reminders all around the city asking Filipinos to stop and rinse away the negative vibes they’re saying; and that it’s time for a clean start. In each print, we made editorial-like caricatures, where each illustration had mouths designed to look like gadgets – a smartphone, a laptop and a desktop – showing the negative opinions Filipinos said during the election phase (campaigning period, canvassing of votes, and presidential inauguration). We also made versions for Facebook and social media, since a lot of election-related negative opinions dominated people’s feeds.

Creative Execution

We needed to be quick in our execution – we needed to post OOH reminders as election-related issues came along. Thus, we chose to go the hand-drawn illustration route. And we depicted the mouth as a laptop, a desktop and a smart phone since a lot of election-related negative opinions were said online; and the negative words were illustrated to look like dirt that needed to be rinsed.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The OOH reminders and its Facebook versions were put up and uploaded as issues came along. The campaign started conversations about moving on from the mudslinging, and actually starting fresh. And more importantly, Listerine is starting to be gain foothold and relevance in the daily lives of Filipinos, beyond tooth brushing moments.

To differentiate itself from the rest of the category, Listerine has started communicating not just fresh breath but total mouth clean. Plus, Listerine has also started moving away from a clinical approach, and more into the lifestyle category, wanting to be relevant in the daily lives of Filipinos. Thus, the election campaign period and the dirt that people have been saying, proved to be a very relevant opportunity for Listerine to communicate mouth cleansing.