As children nutrition experts, Kellogg’s wanted to develop a social campaign to expose malnutrition cases in order to help malnourished kids and make the brand’s food programs more effective and relevant. This was also a measure to address parents starting to stray away from the brand.

We found a reliable way to make malnutrition visible in children under 6 years old: upper arm diameter measurement. This common technique is used by doctors and nutritionists, it allows them to know how malnourished a child is depending on the diameter of the upper arm. For example, an arm 12.5cm in diameter is a clear symptom of malnutrition.

Through this technique, we created school uniforms capable of displaying malnutrition alerts in real-time. By placing this measuring system on the sleeves of kids’ clothing, and simply adjusting them to their arms, we kept track of their status daily.

With the help of industrial designers, doctors and nutritionists, we integrated the special meter in uniforms in a very simple way.

Once kids had their uniforms on, parents and teachers just had to close the part that remained exposed in their right arm with a Velcro system. An arrow on one side of the sleeve pointed to three colors (green, yellow, or red) related to three possible nutrition states, depending on the arm's diameter. This simple indicator ensured parents and teachers had constant information both, at home and at school, about the nutritional status of their children.

If the color was green, the child was in a good condition; if it was yellow or red, it meant the child was in a moderate or severe malnutrition situation. In the case of a yellow or red indicator, a nutritional expert’s number could be found on the shirt's label for immediate help.

In less than two weeks, we went to 20 public schools at 4 of the most needed locations in Mexico to provide them with the uniforms.

During this period, thousands of children wore our uniforms. We have already received more than 200 hundred telephone calls that have become the first step to solve the children’s malnutrition problem in Mexico, allowing us to grow our database in these locations and letting us offer more personalized and effective nutrition programs.

Brand perception improved among parents of the places in which we implemented our initiative, as their knowledge about nutrition issues became wider.

Due to the success of this initiative, Uniform Against Malnutrition are expected to reach more than 200 public schools in the most remoted areas of the country by the end of the year, as well as thousands of Mexican kids in high risk of malnutrition.

The early years of a child's life mark its physical and emotional development for the rest of its life. In Mexico, 1 out of every 8 children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition. Battling this problem is difficult because it often remains invisible. Malnourished children may look healthy; if so, how could parents address the illness with proper treatment or better nutrition?

The objective of the campaign was to make the problem visible, in order to help these malnourished kids and create more effective nutrition programs for them.

With a budget of US $30,000, Kellogg’s wanted to reach 4 differents locations in the country and thousands of kids under the age of 6 in risk of malnutrition.