Bindis double as iodine patches to curb disease in India in campaign by Grey Singapore

Not sure they care about iodine deficiency, just their own award deficiency….the most efficient way to deliver iodine is via iodised salt….a seasoning that can be used in every meal. So all this drama falls flat for me.

Not really, Iodine evorates quickly out of salt.. It was always available in Milk which was widely consumed also. But that’s all changed.. because of baby formula.. It gives to high a dose to newborns..

This is finally a creative idea i can applaud.
Excellent thinking. Worthy cause.No commercial agenda. Inexpensive execution.
Well done boys and girls at Grey.

“Inexpensive execution”

These are clearly the words of a creative chump…one who knows nothing of business.

All those people on the credits working for free izzit?

Interesting. How many were distributed? The video says ‘across India’, but to what extent? Also, who paid for this? What makes it a better method than just distributing iodine tablets? Who is the client?
Come on Grey, please say you didn’t use an important social issue for awards bait?

Is nothing sacred? What a load of horse shit. As a CCO or ECD or whatever, how can you ever expect anybody to take you serious in this industry with stuff like this. How is it a nice idea? It’s a load of horse shit and nothing more. Now where is his award?

Grey has half a dozen offices in india,..yet it falls to their singapore office who are thinking of ideas for the betterment of indians….quite interesting.

Looking at the credits it also seems like a stretch to think of this as a singapore aganecy any more.

Worth noting that grey has half a dozen offices in india and yet it is the singapore office that did this…ironic and suspicious….looks like all the ibdia experts are working in their singapore branch.

I love the hypocrisy of this business.
We all know why we create opportunities to win awards.
We all know how we bend the rules and make self serving case study videos with selective truths, exaggerated results with lofty post rationalized objectives.
We are all live in glass houses yet we love to throw holier than thou stones, perched on our high horses.
Don’t complain why clients these days never treat us and our creative products with respect when we are the ones disrespecting ourselves in the way we behave and waste unrecoverable man hours pursuing awards.
Agency folks aren’t the only ones who read this site. Clients do too. Existing clients and new ones.
Word to the envious, tone down the internal slagging.
Remember how Wendy in her tit for tat rant actually revealed what insiders already knew about how rotten the entire blogg for bucks industry was.
Just smile, applaud when other people win by playing the game better than you.
As ‘made for awards’ go, it’s a nice idea.
Good luck at the casino at cannes.

After many scandals (Ford India, Guinness) many senior clients scared to back scams since discover they can lose their job with this unethical practice…so it makes sense to target the remote NGOs who have no clue what’s really going on.

“Remember how Wendy in her tit for tat rant actually revealed what insiders already knew about how rotten the entire blogg for bucks industry was….tone down the internal slagging” etc etc….

This might be the worst and shadiest advice Ive read here…firstly, there are no outsiders in this business…people are freely crossing over from agency to client, taking their dirty little secrets with them, so your plan won’t work.

Second, you sound like one of the many people at the top of the creative food chain who are the problem in our industry…looking for excuses and cover ups instead of speaking up against a parallel industry that has: 1. ruined our standing in the eyes of clients and 2. created serious talent issues where it is hard to find creatives who can separate the fantasy world of scam ads from the real world skills of advertising.

Does this product actually work?

This reeks of insincerity. There’s a multitude of ways iodine can reach a person. Mixing it in food, for instance. Then why the use of a bindi? Very simple: it looks more interesting on a case study video.

If it wins an award (unlikely), i would say yes it works.

They are a bit late to the party….and are trying to jump on the doing good for indias rural masses bandwagon with an idea that is not half as dramatic or meaningful as lifebuoys dirty hands or the free mobile radio station.

Isnt it a shame that these are ecds making 25-30 k a month and their real ads read something like….”panadol cures headache without stomach discomfort”

This is so scammy!

“Dot that saves lives” … Give us a break please, stop making use of the less fortunate.

While i am supportive of any agency creating work for worthy causes, the recent tidal wave of society changeling/life saving initiatives so close to cannes seasons makes me cynical.
When companies (other than agencies) support worthy causes, they don’t do it in a hit and run manner.
These companies have a year long commitment which supports the NGO’s larger plans on how to effect real change and make tangible contributions involving meaningful volunteering of man, materials and money.

A friend who works in a NGO told me that he’s been approached by many past and present creative people who hound them for a letterhead letter of approval once a year but cannot be reached when they need help in manning stalls at fundraisers or make time to visit the homes of their ‘social clients’ and support their outreach programmes.

You know who you are. And shame on you.
Stop using these causes to promote yourselves.
There are people who are seriously disadvantaged here.
Don’t make their suffering fodder for your gain.

And what about the men? Are they immune to iodine deficiency?

Btw the lab shot totally nailed it for me. If there’s a lab shot, it’s real. Kinda like the adage: If it’s on the Internet, it’s true.

I hope judges remember this thread and vote against giving this exploitative nonsense the recognition its creators so desperately crave.

As was mentioned….governments the world over are aware of iodine deficiency and after consultations with the WHO, the idea of iodine enriched salt was adopted decades ago. This contains the RDA of iodine (too much can mess up your thyroid gland too). This was an amazing, cheap and scalable solution that has benefited billions…yet the inventor of iodised salt got no Cannes awards if I can venture a guess.

So its laughable when you see these creatives standing there with their begging bowls expecting big awards for this unimaginative and inferior delivery mechanism.

Rather forced, isn’t it? Why use a bindi, when you can just spend the money on giving away free tablets? That’s if “Grey for Good” really wanted to do good. While I understand that this “philantrophic arm” was set up for awards glory, surely, there must be a better and more practical way of doing things… with a little less hypocrisy?

Ha ha…we believe you:) India already has iodized salt. This is a joke. Ask any doctor and he will tell you it doesn’t work.

if this invention really works it could change the world… if not… holy cow…

So get this… I sent this video to a medical friend, and he mentioned that iodised salt as mentioned by Pass the Salt is cheaper and more efficient at delivering iodine. Plus, too much iodine to people who are not used to it could be dangerous to their health.

He mentions that if the drops in the video are a saturated solution of potassium iodide or SSKI (it better not be something with elemental iodine, which would be dangerous to the body), then one drop would have 50 mg (or 50,000 micrograms) of iodide, 333 times above the recommended amount and more than enough to mess with your thyroid instead of helping you. If it is diluted down, then it becomes way too inefficient compared to iodised salt at delivering iodine.

So, is it dangerous or inefficient?

While it’s commendable for the agency to be channelling its creativity to solve real world problems, it’s another thing if any agency comes up with these “solutions” to win awards, without regard to the real world implications it may have. In this case, it can actually put lives at risk.

First of all, for more than a decade, the Indian government has been using iodised salts, which studies show has already reached 91% of India (including rural areas). Plus, orally ingested iodised salts are a far more reliable way to delivering iodine than through skin absorption.

So some of the people in the population might have already been getting an adequate amount of iodine to begin with. Research shows that even a 400 MICROgram supplementation of iodine may cause hypothyroidism. A sudden increase in iodine intake may also cause HYPERthyroidism. In patients with underlying thyroid disorder or any iodine sensitivity, a sudden increase in iodine can have adverse, and in some cases, life-threatening effects.

In short: this is an inefficient, unsustainable way to deliver iodine at best, and dangerous at worst.

So the question is, did the good folks at Grey for Good or the organisation distributing these Bindis do lab work to check the current daily iodine intake of every single one of the claimed 100,000 women receiving the Bindis, or if any of these 100,000 had any medical history of thyroid problems or sensitivity to iodine? Do they have evidence to back their due diligence up?

I hope the Mumbrella crew will help get us get to the bottom of this. Putting people’s health at risk for an award isn’t “For Good” at all.

This episode really calls into question both the ethics of the Chief Creative Head as well as his creative credentials for green lighting an idea that isn’t even shown to work in terms of efficacy. The issue of allegedly adopting social causes solely for awards benefits is also one of great shame and, if proved, is deserving of contempt. I hope their own clients call them up and question them on this… if I found out I was in business with someone accused of doing something unethical, I would have to reconsider my ties with them for the sake of my organisation’s image.

Hi ‘For Good’,

Thanks for your comment. We have put your question to Grey and are awaiting a response.

Cheers,
Robin

This is really going too far. For an award? Really boys? What’s next, using blind people to…

@Blunder, you mean this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NbWcqAGso

As an agency of considerable pharma experience with regard to overdosage and side effects, you must certainly be aware of the life threatening effects of unprescribed distribution of this iodine patch.
Putting aside your awards agenda, please tell us that there were:
1- Adequate information regarding side effects in the packaging information with these iodine patches
2-A prescreening process of who they were distributed to

If you want to truly do good, make sure you first do no harm.
Then again, you guys never went to medical school.
Just Crowbars and AWARD school.

If even one of the purported people you claimed to have ‘helped’ gets sick or dies, you are wide open for a class action suit.

With lawyers and lobby money, Union Carbide got away with Bhpol.
How do you fancy your chances?

And now it’s shortlisted as one of Mumbrella Award’s “Pro Bono Campaign of the Year”…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KW1AlvBFTww

Poor India…

‘While the NGO has yet to monitor the impact of the bindis on the iodine levels of the tribal women, Grey is now working on the second phase of this project wherein they plan to make these bindis available in the market. “We are in the midst of ironing out details for production and distribution,” says Arora.’

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Iodine-bindis-for-tribal-women-to-fight-deficiency/articleshow/46884611.cms

I love how they pushed some nobody from grey forward as spokesman..none of the big guns want to touch this smoking gun…lol.

Since this is shortlisted for an Outdoor Lion, it means it just ran again this year.

How is everyone doing with their bindis? Getting enough iodine guys?