Thailand’s dynamic transformation from an agricultural country to an industrialized one caused a series of environmental issues. Prioritizing economic growth over nature’s well-being forced the country’s population to live in a polluted atmosphere where proper ecological behavior is required to face its devastating effects.
Exposure to air pollution has a direct impact on our health. The worldwide awareness focuses on respiratory, cardiovascular, and skin diseases. But the damage air pollution can do to our hair is superficially documented. Just like the skin, the scalp is directly exposed to pollution, forming the first barrier that has to face the poisonous effects of a contaminated background.
In an attempt to make people conscious of this issue, Pantene Thailand teamed up with GREYnJ United Bangkok and created an integrated campaign in which the main focus was a giant hairy billboard. The Procter & Gamble brand built “The Hair Falling Billboard,” an interactive panel that highlights pollution’s harmful consequences.
Placed in high-traffic areas, the interactive OOH panel acted as a human’s scalp, mimicking the mechanism of hair loss due to air pollution. To react accordingly, the billboard was equipped with a real-time air pollution measurement sensor.
Once the system exceeded the air pollution index, which was set to an acceptable 50 psi standard (pollutant standard index), the billboard began to show the first symptoms of Sensitive Scalp Syndrome. Hair locks began to fall gradually and, in just 10 days, the billboard had gone completely bald, revealing the company’s ad for its hair fall control products.
Designed to unbox people’s thinking and make them less careless when it comes to air pollution, the creative billboard follows another similar eco-friendly project, courtesy of Ogilvy & Mather Italy and Urban Vision. In their effort to combat air pollution, they developed the “Ad/Sorbent” mechanism, an innovative panel that absorbs emissions and purifies the air, thanks to the special material in which it is wrapped in.
Pantene’s creative experiment proved that even short exposure to high levels of air pollution can pose a serious threat to our hair. Although the company’s action is a small step in the fight against pollution, the brand’s product still stands as a precious resource that can reverse the damage caused by harmful toxins upon one’s hair.
The “scientific procedure” was performed in the creative “laboratories” of the Bangkok-based agency. The capital city’s streets were the testing ground, whilst the entire operation was documented by the artists and staged as a one-and-a-half-minute video. Check it out for yourselves:
Credits:
Client: Pantene Thailand
Agency: GREYnJ United, Bangkok, Thailand
Chief Creative Officer: Jureeporn Thaidumrong
Chief Executive Officer: Subbaraju Alluri
Md: Kanaporn Hutcheson
Group Client Service Director: Kanokkorn Seehapan
Creative Directors: Apiwat Pattalarungkhan, Irvine Prisilia
Copywriters: Tanongsak Tannoprat, Jidapa Udomkittivorakul
Art Director: Atthapong Rakkhatham
Account Director: Kantharat Teerarojjanawong
Account Executive: Nutnaree Harussadeechavalit
Planning Director: Navinda Kittisubkul
Digital Media Director: Pojanee Sowantip
Production House: Bearhug
Online Film Director: Chutirat Thianphicet