Otrivin’s mission is to drive ‘Actions to Breathe Cleaner’. India is notorious for its air-pollution levels. At times, the air can become unbreathable as it breaches hazardous limits of 500+ AQI in top metros of the the country. It affects everyone, but on children the effect is alarming. As a result, over 80% of the 22.7Mn children in Delhi NCR alone suffer from some form of respiratory ailment.

Otrivin Breathe Clean, a daily nasal wash, wanted to address this choking issue and felt the urgency to do something disruptive to bring the threat of pollution on kids, to the fore.

The Brief: HOW CAN OTRIVIN HELP PROTECT THE FUTURE OF KIDS IN THESE HIGHLY POLLUTED CITIES?

The Goal: SEED SMALL, SUSTAINABLE HABITS IN KIDS TO CUT DOWN AIR POLLUTION, THEREBY INFLUENCING PARENTS AND HAVING A CUMULATIVE IMPACT ON POLLUTION.

KIDS BELIEVE UNEQUIVOCALLY IN THE POWERS OF ‘SUPERHEROES’ TO CHANGE THE WORLD AND BATTLE AGAINST SUPERVILLAINS HELLBENT ON DESTRUCTION.

OUR IDEA WAS TO LET KIDS CONCEIVE THEIR OWN SUPERHERO in a creative environment who would empower them to be the change and save them from a dark future.

At Comic Con India’22, 400 kids (9-13y) used their imagination to create India’s very first superhero dedicated to the cause of fighting against pollution for a cleaner tomorrow. Thus, AEROWIN was born. She made her debut in India’s most popular children’s magazine, Tinkle. Through the comic book, kids were able to learn SIMPLE HABITS THAT THEY COULD ADOPT TO FIGHT POLLUTION, THUS BECOMING BEHAVIOR CHANGE AGENTS FOR THEIR PARENTS. Aerowin traveled to 21 different schools across India culminating with OPEN LETTERS written by kids to elders, urging them to take small steps to secure a cleaner future for them.

To convince 30y+ parents to change their behavior towards pollution, we chose their kids between 9-13y. Our insight was that KIDS CONTRIBUTE THE LEAST TO POLLUTION BUT SUFFER THE MOST. Severe pollution affects their health and leads to the loss of invaluable childhood playtime outdoors. Kids don’t drive cars or run factories, nor engage in crop stubble-burning, etc. but end up as the biggest sufferers.

Our strategy was to TURN THE SAME SUFFERERS INTO CHANGE-AGENTS by empowering and engaging with kids to take matters into their own hands, use their COLLECTIVE POWER OF IMAGINATION to create their own saviour, A SUPERHERO, who would spread an inspiring message of a pollution-free tomorrow amongst parents.

At Comic Con India (9-11 Dec 2022), Otrivin set up a stall in a prime location at the venue, where more than 400 kids collaborated to create a superhero that would fight against pollution, moderated by reputed artists. Thus, their very own superhero -AEROWIN was born, who was then launched through TINKLE COMICS, India’s most popular children’s magazine. AEROWIN got her own illustrated series where she showed healthy, sustainable habits that kids could adopt and relay back to their parents.

21 REPUTED SCHOOLS were identified in pollution hotspots across the country. Our superhero visited these schools and empowered kids to write OPEN LETTERS to elders – all with the message to take small actions to breathe clean. They eagerly joined the AEROWIN CLUB and formed small neighbourhood communities to convince elders to change their polluting habits.

AEROWIN reached out to 21 schools across 3 pollution hotspots in the country, allowing her to engage with 30K+ Schoolkids. Thanks to her appearance in Tinkle, we were able to reach the mass, spreading AEROWIN’s message to 12.8Mn kids. Comic Con’22 attendance of 200K+ adults and letters written by the kids to their elders further helped the cause and allowed us to reach a total of 13 MN HOUSEHOLDS across the country.

Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) data showed that DELHI NCR LOGGED ‘GOOD TO MODERATE’ AQI ON 35 DAYS IN Q1’23, AN IMPROVEMENT BY 30% YOY. After being touted as #2 most-polluted city in the world (Feb’23), Mumbai AQI in Mar’23 became ‘satisfactory’.

The fight against pollution has only begun and will continue through more schoolkids and parents in other polluted cities.