To make it as authentic as possible, the casting process required more effort than usual. While most films usually go through the normal casting process within a few days, our team spent more than a month handcrafting the search for a real single mom who embodies the strong 'Yimsu' spirit.

We conducted many rounds of extensive research and deep interviews until one of the potential candidates, Alisa “Tri,” was found to have the most inspiring story. To truly capture the real emotions, the rest of the cast were her actual family members.

Single mothers in Thailand are stigmatized as inadequate mothers, incapable of providing their children a better future.

With most of them being rejected by their families and the lack of support from society leads to them having to face financial struggle and emotional pressure while having to raise their child all alone.

As a brand who believes everyone deserve the future to smile about, Colgate wanted to help change the perception towards single mothers by celebrating the incredible ‘Yimsu’ spirit that each of them possess through a film centered around the real story of Alisa “Tri” Yoohanngoh (aka Moon Shadow), a single mother and professional boxer.

Tri gave up on her boxing dreams due to her unplanned pregnancy at the start of her career but chose to make a comeback into the ring after 4 years of raising her child.

Her struggles in her daily life are compared to the fight inside the boxing ring to demonstrate how her “Yimsu” spirit empowers her to never give up.

The film highlights the moment when Tri gets knocked to the ground and the referee starting the count for her to get backup. Every count is paralleled with a setback she faced in life, building up to a point where it seems she has lost every reason to keep fighting.

Her daughter’s call wakes her up just before the count is over, but what ignites her “Yimsu” spirit to give her the strength to rise up is seeing the smile of her daughter.

Inside a stadium, two female Muay Thai fighters exchange punches in the middle of the boxing ring. Alisa 'Tri' is suddenly knocked down, and the referee starts the count for her to get back up.

Each count is paralleled to one of the setbacks that life has thrown at her, starting from the moment she discovered that she was pregnant. As the count goes on, each setback also becomes harder for her to overcome and increasingly more dramatic, until she reaches a point where it seems much easier to just give up.

Just before the count is over, she is awakened by the call of her daughter and sees her daughter’s Yimsu smile, which has the power to give her all the strength needed to rise up stronger. At the moment Tri smiles back at her daughter, a caption reveals that the plot was inspired by Tri’s real-life story.

Objective: To strengthen brand love and affinity by connecting with Thai moms on an emotional level

Situation: over the past 4 years, Colgate 'Yimsu' campaign has been championing real people with incredible “Yimsu” spirit despite the extreme hardships they faced due to them being decriminalized by their personal unfortunate circumstances (such as, disabilities, ages, LGBTQ+)

This year we will make the “Yimsu” campaign more relatable and relevant to every Thai, while building emotional connection with Thai moms around Mother’s Day.

To truly inspire people, our film relied on authenticity. In order to find the real people to be featured in our film based on their real life stories, the conventional casting of actors would not be suitable. Instead, the agency team had to conduct extensive research online and social media to find inspirational stories that highlighted the “Yimsu” spirit of single moms.

A shortlist of potential candidates were interviewed to dig deeper into their stories and discover insights that were not available to the public.

The single mom and professional Thai boxer, Alisa “Tri” Yoohanngoh (Aka Moon Shadow) was found to have the most inspiring one.

To truly capture the real emotions, the rest of the casts as well as the locations were kept as authentic as possible, from her dad, her daughter and every family member featured, to her home and her local training gym.