In India, every truck, has the line ‘USE DIPPER AT NIGHT’ painted on its back. Which means, "Dip headlights at night." This simple, omnipresent & universally understood message was the basis of the idea. We created a condom brand and named it ‘DIPPER’, while using truck art (a cult art form popular among truckers across geographies) as inspiration for its packaging. We didn’t just innovate on packaging, but on media design by simultaneously making every receiver also the carrier of our message.

Dipper was a pioneering idea that allowed a message to be relentlessly present across India’s most media-barren places – the highways. By leveraging on an ambient, mandated message, we made the target audience (in this case truckers), the carriers of the message across the remotest of places where media couldn’t reach. They propagated safe sex by just driving their trucks across the length and breadth of the Indian Highway – which happens to be the 2nd largest roadway in the world. They reminded each other to use DIPPER condoms at night. In association with HLL Lifecare, India's largest contraceptive provider and TCI Foundation, India's largest foundation integrated by the Govt. of India for its National Aids Control program, the condoms were distributed at medical clinics, service centers, restaurants, petrol pumps, convenience stores and touch points frequented by the trucker on the remote highways of India, across every state of India.

It would take years of sustenance from our end and research to eradicate this deadly epidemic. But steps in the right direction have begun. Yes, we did promote the use of condoms and safe sex amongst a significant number of truckers.  The activity was very well received by the entire trucking community as well as the Commercial Sex Workers interviewed. This activity has also drawn the attention of other large Public Sector organizations and the Govt of India who have all the resources to make a significant difference to the life of a trucker.

This is a unique case of how “Media” or the lack of it inspired the creative idea. Tata Motors, India’s leading truck maker wanted to go beyond profitability by creating awareness & propagating safe sex in the trucking fraternity, the largest group of working professionals in India, that suffer from AIDS. The key challenge was “reach”, since truckers typically drive around in remote highway areas, it’s actually impossible to reach them through traditional & non-traditional media. We had to find a new ‘Media’ channel to accomplish the improbable.

How do you find and talk to an audience that always driving around on completely media-dark highways? Since traditional and non-traditional media were out, we looked at the back of every truck. The back of every truck in India has the mandatory line ‘USE DIPPER AT NIGHT’ (use of low beam at night). This omnipresent & universally understood message became the basis of our creative solution. We created a condom brand and named it ‘DIPPER’, while using truck art (a cult trucker art form) as inspiration for its packaging. The pre-existing salience had immediate relevance with truckers while ensuring excellent ROI since the media spend was zero.

As India’s leading truck maker, it has been incumbent upon Tata Motors to often go beyond the obvious call of duty (profitability) to pioneer solutions for larger issues that often threaten the entire category. One particularly difficult issue was creating awareness & propagating safe sex in the trucking fraternity, the largest group of working professionals in India, that suffer from AIDS. Most truckers who engage with commercial sex workers are unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex. And despite government interventions, no one has ever addressed the trucker’s plight with focus, creativity and scale.