In South Africa, all marketers of health products should maintain high ethical standards when conducting promotional activities and must comply with applicable legal, regulatory and professional requirements. Compliance with the Code will ensure that ethical promotional practices are established for all marketers, prescribers, dispensers, advisers and users of health products. The overarching philosophy is a principle of compliance with the spirit of the Code of Practice for the Marketing of Health products in South Africa.

In South Africa, thousands die every year in disadvantaged areas from preventable diseases like typhoid, diarrhoea, pneumonia and cholera, due to lack of hygiene. Worst of all, the diseases affect the most vulnerable and innocent - our children. In Blikkiesdorp, an informal settlement in the Western Cape, South Africa, we worked with Blikkiesdorp4hope, an accredited NGO backed by the Safety Lab, an organisation that works with the City of Cape Town. They wanted to increase awareness of hand hygiene and create a habit of hand washing among children in Blikkiesdorp.

Introducing Hope soap. A see-through bar of soap with a small toy inside. The only way for kids to get to the toy, is to use up the soap. Toys for both boys and girls were provided and the act of hand washing became incentivised.

Providing kids with soap is easy, getting them to use it routinely is the big challenge. By incentivising the act of hand washing, Hope Soap changed the way kids see hand hygiene. The soap itself promoted the message of healthy hand hygiene and provided children with the solution at the same time.

To increase hand hygiene awareness, we turned soap into the medium. A see-through bar of soap with a small toy inside. The only way for kids to get to the toy, is to use up the soap. The label on the back carried simple instructions. But soap itself promotes a message of healthy hand hygiene and provided children with the solution at the same time.

Hope Soap encouraged a positive change in the behaviour of children in Blikkiesdorp, by instilling the habit of hand washing. As a result: there was a 75% reduction in respiratory infections and 70% reduction in illnesses. In the end, the children’s small reward was a toy, but South Africa’s big reward was hope for a healthier nation.

Simple soap-making techniques were used to make the soap transparent so that children could see the toy that they were ‘washing towards’. To make them more friendly and appealing to children, the edges of the soaps are curved and in warm friendly colours. The logo design is colourful and child-like. A simple sticker on the back of the soap communicates the importance of hand washing but transparent packaging in the front, keeps the toy visible.

Hope Soaps were also designed for both boys and girls (action figures/cars for boys; butterflies/Hello Kitty toys for girls).

Research has shown that the simple act of washing hands frequently with soap, is the most effective way of preventing the spread of infection and deadly disease. But providing kids with soap is easy – the biggest challenge is getting them to use it repetitively. This comes from the insight that children simply do not enjoy the tedious task of washing their hands.

Introducing Hope soap. A see-through bar of soap with a small toy inside. The only way for kids to get to the toy, is to use up the soap. Toys for both boys and girls were provided and the act of hand washing became incentivised.