OPERATION SMILE INDIA | :{TO:) #CLEFTTOSMILE | 2014
How Three Characters of Emoji Raised Money for Cleft Surgery / OPERATION SMILE INDIA ":{TO:) #CLEFTTOSMILE"
The three-character emoticon :{to:), typed right on a keyboard, became the charity's logo itself. No elaborate visuals, no video needed—just tweeting it was enough to spread both donations and awareness.
The problem
In India, many children are born with cleft lip and palate, but access to treatment is scarce. Operation Smile India has provided free treatment since 2002. Even so, more than 1 million people were left untreated.
The insight
Ogilvy zeroed in on one fact: surgery to fix a cleft takes just 45 minutes. Could that "gap" be visualized—and could it be made so simple that anyone could join in instantly from their phone or computer? That idea came from a young team at the agency.
The idea
The answer was a logo made entirely of text: ":{to:)". The face on the left represents a face with a cleft, the face on the right shows the smile after surgery, and the "to" in between represents the 45-minute surgery itself. Anyone could take part and spread it just by tweeting it, and the campaign aimed to become the most-tweeted logo in the world. It brought in the Rajasthan Royals and well-known public figures, and a dedicated website tracked the tweet count in real time.
What happened
At Cannes Lions 2014, it won a Gold Lion in the Design category and a Silver Lion in the newly created Lions Health category, making it the only entry from India to win in Lions Health. The young team behind it, including Eugene Rebello, had also won at Young Guns in 2013.
Afterthought
It's amazing that just three characters, almost like emoji, manage to carry both a heavy issue and real hope at the same time. It really drives home that the strength of design comes down to how much you can strip away and still have it speak for itself, without any explanation. I want to see more projects where the logo itself does the work like this.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2014
