Rival brands celebrate eating with hands

Ad Nut's job is weird sometimes. Today, for example, Ad Nut's old oak tree has received dispatches about two different pieces of advertising work, from two different handwashing brands, which belong to two different consumer-product behemoths. The brands are aiming for two different markets, and they're working with two different agencies. Yet both have chosen, at the same time, to focus on the practice of eating with one's hands. What are the chances?

Let's clean our hands and dig in, shall we?

Lifebuoy (Unilever)
'Accept Bhog With Clean Hands'
India
Lowe Lintas
For the recent Durga Puja festival, the brand built a cool hand-sanitizer dispenser shaped like a giant hand making a gesture of blessing. A central part of the festival is eating the "bhog", a meal considered a blessing from the goddess Durga, and it's often eaten by hand. 

Safeguard (P&G)
'Wash your hands and Go Kamayan'
Philippines
Publicis Singapore
This "social experiment" involves a group of celebrities—Boy Abunda, Ai-Ai Delas Alas, Bianca Gonzalez, Tessa Prieto, Drew Arellano, Neri Miranda, James Deakin, and LA Tenario—who have been invited to a formal dinner but are surprised when waitstaff remove the silverware from their table.

Ad Nut can't pick a winner here, and there's no need to.

The Lifebuoy work does a nice job of inserting the brand into an ancient festival in a way that's attention-grabbing and fitting. The brand also seems to have made a serious effort to install the device at a number of festival sites around India.

The Safeguard setup, although more of a one-off, actually results in some interesting conversation about both the stigma and merit of by-hand dining. It's fun to see the initially shy group get into it with relish.

By rights, Unilever may feel that Lifebuoy should "own" handwashing as a purpose, due to its previous work (see below). But you can't really own something like that, and P&G has every right to make the same effort to position Safeguard, as it has done deftly here.  

Ad Nut always takes meals by paw, because Ad Nut is a squirrel. But humans, who are frankly a bit filthy (tough love, friends!), need to cleanse thoroughly before eating with their hands, not to mention before feeding any squirrels they happen to come across (which is always appreciated). So Ad Nut commends both of these efforts.

Related: A 'washable book' aims to help prevent child deaths Lifebuoy uses roti to deliver anti-diarrhoea message at religious festival Unilever furthers Lifebuoy handwashing message with film set in Indonesia Lifebuoy launches Malaysia campaign surrounding Ramadan

CREDITS

Lifebuoy:

Client: Kartik Chandrasekhar, Madhurjya Banerjee, Harman Dhillon, Guntas Randhawa and Ajeyta Agarwal
Creative: Sagar Kapoor, Sarvesh Raikar, Nitin Sawant, Satendra Mhatre, Joybrato Dutta and Girish Umamaheshwar
Account Management: Vinay Vinayak, Dharal Goshalia and Prathamesh Kulkarni
Planning: Shahvez Afridi and Savita Iyer
Production: Prakash Vaidyanathan, Shomik Basuray and Srushti Iyer

Safeguard:

Publicis Singapore:
Ajay Thrivikraman - Chief Creative Officer, Global Clients
Theresa Ong - Regional Creative Director
Fajar Kurnia & Jeremy Chia – Executive Creative Directors
Creative Team: Mark Ibaviosa, Ivan Policarpo, Pearlyn Ong, Tania Sim, Jia Ying Goh, Pei Ling Ho
Shirlie Tay – Executive Producer
K Cheng - Producer
Jordan Price - Regional Head of Planning
Josh Roth - Regional Senior Planner
Natalie VanderVorst – EVP, Global Clients
Maninder Bali – Regional Business Director
Geraldine Yap – Account Director
Daniel Hejl – Account Manager

Production: Prodigious Singapore
Unitel x Straight Shooters Media Inc.
Pepe Diokno - Film Director
Raissa Carrelli – Executive Producer
Riza Bacay - Production Designer
Boy Yniguez - Director of Photography
Kristi Gallaga - Assistant Director
Denice Javier - Production Manager
Fitz Romero, Lyka Alino, Alfon Silva - Production Staff
Thazzia Falek, Glenyss Francisco - Makeup
Ed Santos – Offline

Post-production: KRAFTW5RKZ Singapore
Bernard Tay - Executive Producer
Corey Spykerman - Colourist
Matthew Ho – Online
Leong Beng Wee – Online
Sandy Ng – Online

Audio production: Sound Design, Inc.
Paolo Escanillas - Audio Engineer
Hero Mauricio - Arranger

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.