Despite the free life-changing treatments being given, there was a lack of support. Why? Because most people know nothing about it.

Also, we didn't have millions to spend on billboards, press and TV. So we needed to design a simple method to tell people what Operation Smile does, and take their help to make cleft a popular cause.

Cleft? Millions of children in India alone are affected by it. 1 in 10 will die before their first birthday.

Operation Smile: A cleft charity that provides free life-changing treatment that changes clefts to smiles. Yet there is a lack of support. Why? Because people know nothing about it.

With only a small budget, we were tasked with spreading widespread cleft awareness for Operation Smile India, a cleft-charity that for over 10 years has been providing free treatment to countless children across India.

:{to:) , the CleftToSmile

A ‘type-able’ logo designed to bring the cleft in the public eye.

:{to:) very simply demonstrated the life-changing transformation Operation Smile brings to the lives of children with cleft. Hence, spreading awareness about the issue without the need of saying a single word.

And so we asked people to tweet the logo to spread awareness.

This logo needed no billboards or big budget campaigning. And because our logo wasn’t bound by font or color, everyone with a keypad and a willingness to help could instantly re-create it and spread awareness.

People love sending smilies anyway. But this time, it meant much more. :{to:) was so easy to spread, that it became only natural for people to tweet it.

20,000+ Tweets.

Soon major celebrities joined in and spread awareness for Operation Smile to millions of their followers, not just in India but across the world.

100+ Celebrities

From one to many to many more, this message spread and today a lot more are aware of the cause.

Total Reach – 30 Million.

“Inspiring use of twitter” – Twitter.com

“One good thing this logo has done is when we now go seeking support to corporates and foundations, they at least don’t ask us ‘What is cleft?’” – Prashanti Mikalya – Administrator, Operation Smile India.