Ala: Every child has the right to be a child

A couple of weeks ago Ala, Unilever's most popular washing powder in Argentina (which uses the Dirt is Good platform like Persil in the UK) hosted a conference open to the community on the subject of "A childhood orientated around play and experience".

This followed on from previous annual forums on:
- The role of dirtiness in child development
- Child development via play
- The importance of sports activities practiced between parents and their children and their influence on childhood development

I thought it was genius.

Unilever had commissioned two Yale researchers, Jerome and Dorothy Singer, to research the importance of play in child development around the world. Naturally the findings were that the messiest types of outdoor play are absolutely essential, both from a scientific point of view, and in the opinion of parents who were interviewed.

Other speakers included an art teacher on the importance of freedom to experiment, and a paediatrician on the importance of getting dirty during childhood for the sake of immune system development.

Written like this it all sounds horribly cheesy, but strangely enough it was presented in the most genuine way. In fact most of this stuff is a no-brainer anyway but Ala managed to create a community and facilitate a debate that was useful to that community (and boy did they debate afterwards), while remaining quietly in the sidelines watching its brand values take life.

There wasn't even any product sampling.

This reminds me of a debate a few months back around the success of British planning and Argentine creativity. On Adliterate and Adstructure

Comments

[Daniel Mejia]

Definetly Unilver got it right. It´s incredible how such a huge company has managed to turn their brands in such icons in all the world. It´s not only Ala, is Dove, is Axe, is Rexona... P&G should be very worry

Did you notice that both Dove and Ala are building their brands through CSR. It´s not just advertising, it´s communication in a much deeper level...

[Air Jordan 4]

What a great blog!There have a chance that we can have an furthur exchanges and cooperation.I will always pay attention to your blog.