As a brand specifically made for the weaning period (transitioning children to solid food), Cerelac is lacking in relevance amongst Indonesian parents who prefer simple rice porridge as their baby’s weaning food. 

As a product fortified with Iron nutrients, Cerelac was seeking new ways to increase relevance and consideration with the target audience.

Although preventing iron deficiency can be easily done by consuming iron-rich foods, detecting the signs of iron deficiency itself is challenging.

However, there is one early sign of iron deficiency that is easily visible to the naked eye: the tongue color. A healthy tongue is a pinkish color, but a much paler or darker tone can indicate a health problem, like iron deficiency


Introducing Tongue Spoon, a baby spoon in the color of healthy baby’s tongue. Leveraging feeding moments of Moms and babies, Tongue Spoon can easily help Moms identifying the first signs of potential iron deficiency by comparing their baby’s tongue color with the spoon. The similar the color, the better.

We realized that the only way that an Iron fortified product such as Cerelac could build relevancy and consideration, was by raising awareness of Iron Deficiency in general., assuming that with this knowledge., parents would actively seek out these products.



But, how could we do more in this area than what was already being attempted by the government of Indonesia itself? How might we disrupt generic health related content and really bring the message into people homes?



Through further research we discovered that there are many ways for parents to spot the signs of Iron deficiency in their child, themselves.



The Strategy:


GET: Parents with weaning-age children


WHO: Lack knowledge on iron deficiency and its effects


TO: Seek out Iron fortified weaning foods and choose Cerelac


BY: Helping them to spot the signs of Iron Deficiency in their own children

Tongue Spoon is crafted in a way that mimics the color of a healthy baby’s tongue. Designed using a database of images of healthy baby tongues and tongues of babies with iron deficiency, in collaboration with certified midwives. AI was used to calculate the average healthy tongue color based on the images provided.

Designed with a fissure/groove in the spoon’s bowl to represent the tongue, it is BPA free, with a soft texture and is baby food grade approved, it can be used for babies from 6-12 months old.

Presented in packaging that provides further advice and infographics that attract and provide guidance to the user.

To make the spoons widely accessible, Tongue Spoon is available free with every purchase of Cerelac, available in online and offline retailers throughout Indonesia.

To raise further awareness we collaborated with health centers across Indonesia where Tongue Spoon was used as an educational tool.

Cerelac is contributing towards SDG’s initiative of “Good Health and Well-Being for Everyone” by campaigning the importance of Iron sufficiency in babies diets.

By making the Tongue Spoon available for everyone it's instrumental in baby nutritional education in 500 National Health Posts, we educate over 15,000 Indonesian moms accross rural areas to be aware of Iron deficiency and encourage them to choose weaning foods high in Iron. All using the simple method of tongue checking. This has led to 76% of moms introduced to the Tongue Spoon wanting to continue using the spoon and turn health and iron check-ups into a daily routine.

Furthermore, 87% of moms educated by the Spoon now understand the importance of adding iron to babies weaning diet.

Due to the initial success, the next batch of 30.000 spoons is in the process of distribution, with the final aim to have the spoons available across Indonesia.