The act of washing one’s hands with soap can dramatically reduce the incidence of diarrheal diseases and pneumonia, which together account for the majority of children’s deaths around the world. The goal of Global Handwashing Day is to make people aware that effective prevention is simple and inexpensive. The first Global Handwashing Day in 2008 was the centerpiece of a week of activities that mobilized millions of people in more than 60 countries across five continents to encourage handwashing with soap.

Global Handwashing Day was established by the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPPHW), an international initiative consisting of multiple organizations around the world, including Procter & Gamble. Once the fifteenth of October was established as Global Handwashing Day, the PPPHW sought to develop a unique and ownable visual identity. This identity needed to be easy to translate across multiple cultures and languages to effectively communicate its powerful, life-saving message. Through our partnership with Procter & Gamble’s Safeguard brand, we were asked to develop the Global Handwashing Day identity and usage guidelines.

Nearly 80 countries participated in awareness of Global Handwashing Day for 2008, where playgrounds, classrooms, community centers, and the public spaces of towns and cities were awash with activity to drive handwashing behavior change on a scale never seen before, bringing the critical issue center stage.

Six of our offices around the world joined together to develop the identity, "Better Together." This is an upbeat, positive, and strong visual identity that encourages adoption of a life-saving behavior change without any text, making it appealing and easily understood by adults and children all over the world. The characters holding hands communicate that when water and hands are brought together with soap, health is the result—and health is worth smiling about. We provided identity guidelines and sample applications, as well as environmental concepts for future events that could drive further awareness of this vital cause. The identity has been very well received and was successfully translated into materials for the promotion of the inaugural event.