A 'washable book' aims to help prevent child deaths

To mark Hand-Washing Day in Japan, Angfa, a skincare product company, has developed a ‘washable’ picture book for children in developing countries. The book is designed to educate children on the importance of washing hands, and ultimately to help prevent premature deaths from infectious disease.

McCann Health Japan worked with Angfa on the project.

A total of 400 books will be sent to children in Cambodia along with Angfa’s germicidal soap, called Save Soap. Readers of the book must wash the hands of the character on the page with the soap to reveal a colour image of what that character’s future holds—for example, becoming a professional footballer. The book concludes with the reader seeing a mirror image of themselves and washing their own ‘hands’ to reveal multiple possibilities as to what they can become.

Angfa describes its proposition as being to “elevate our quality of life through preventive medicine products”. Its Save Soap scheme operates as a one-for-one: for every bar of soap purchased in Japan, another is sent to children in Cambodia.

Campaign’s view: Simple and well-conceived, in the same way as Lifebuoy’s ‘Roti Reminder’, this idea is itself a reminder that low-tech creative work still has an important role to play in trying to change people’s behaviour. While the work was probably developed with awards juries in mind, as a CSR initiative, it is also clearly linked to the company’s core business. It is not clear whether the scheme will extend to other developing countries. We hope so, and that it will be ongoing.