Sikat Gigi Pagi Malam

Unilever Oral Care, the global manufacturer of toothpaste and toothbrushes, is launching a global ‘Brush Day+Night’ campaign to encourage children and their parents to brush their teeth twice a day, everyday. The campaign will be implemented via Unilever Oral Care brands including Signal, Pepsodent and Close Up in countries around the world. A simple concept, the campaign was inspired not only by mums’ challenging toothbrushing experiences with their children but also a groundbreaking scientific study.

Unilever Oral Care ran the scientific study(i) in China and measured the effect of two different TV advertisements on adults’ and children’s toothbrushing habits. 246 families were split into two groups and over the course of three weeks, one group viewed a TV advertisement showing a father and son enjoying quality time and brushing their teeth together, while the other group watched a more traditional anti-cavity toothpaste advertisement, that didn’t emphasise any family shared experience. The toothbrushing habits of both groups were then measured. To ensure accurate results, the families used a unique ‘Sensor brush’ which contained a chip in the handle to record their toothbrushing behaviour before and after exposure to the advertisements. The chip then provided a detailed record of the frequency and duration of all toothbrushing over the course of the experiment.

Jean-Paul Claessen, Unilever Oral Care’s Consumer Research Manager who conducted the study comments: “The father and son advertisement conveyed three key messages: children copy all sorts of habits from their parents; because of this, parents can be excellent role models in instilling good habits; and parents can show their child that brushing teeth before bedtime is easy and does not need to be an ordeal.

“Consumer research showed that the advertisement was so enjoyable to watch, that we wanted to see whether it actually inspired families to change their toothbrushing behaviour at night time. We commissioned the study, and were delighted to see in the evidence that it really influenced actual toothbrushing behaviour.”

24 percent of the families who watched the father and son advertisement brushed their teeth more often at night immediately after viewing the advertisement. Although this change was only temporary, it clearly indicated the power of the approach.

Inspired by the success of the study, Unilever Oral Care has developed the Brush Day+Night campaign around parents and children sharing enjoyable, educational experiences when brushing their teeth, with the aim of creating a new long term habit of children and their parents brushing day and night.

This is critical because brushing day and night with a fluoride toothpaste can cut tooth decay by up to 50% for children(ii), compared with just brushing once, reducing the misery, pain, loss of self-confidence and expense that tooth decay can cause. Furthermore, oral disease has been linked to a variety of other serious conditions: periodontitis (the severe form of gum disease) has been linked to cardiovascular disease, strokes and bacterial pneumonia. In extreme cases, infections in the mouth, if left untreated, can be life threatening.

Getting parents to brush their teeth with their children is beneficial to cementing good oral health habits at an early age. When a routine becomes a regularly enjoyable experience, both children and parents forget it is a task and instead look forward to spending time with each other. This means children are more likely to adopt these habits as part of their daily routine and continue throughout their adult life.

The campaign revolves around two characters, Pablo and Oliver, a father and son who share tips and tricks on how to make brushing enjoyable, rather than a nightly torture for both parents and children. A series of TV advertisements will run in countries around the world at key times of the day. The advertisements will take viewers through the real life journey of Pablo who uses humour to educate his son, Oliver, while brushing his teeth, especially at night time. A new and improved schools programme designed to teach children how to brush will also be rolled out, together with a campaign targeted at dental professionals, providing them with engaging educational materials to pass onto their patients. Finally, a comprehensive PR campaign will raise awareness of the poor oral health of children in the country and most importantly, what parents can do to solve this.

The Brush Day+Night campaign is supported by the world’s dental authority, the FDI World Dental Federation and the world’s leading expert in effective schools programmes for improved oral health, Professor Cynthia Pine, CBE.

Click here to find out more about Unilever Oral Care

For more information please contact your local Unilever office or the global press office on brushdayandnight@saltlondon.com or call +44 208 870 6777. Press contacts: Nicky Young & Lucy Hannacher.

(i) Full details of the study were published at the FDI World Dental Congress in Stockholm, Sweden in September 2008 and are published in the International Dental Journal, Volume 58, Number 5,Supplement

(ii) Pine et al. Int Dent J 2000; 50: 312-323