Red Fuse's new film for Colgate PH: real courage demonstrated in a smile

Red Fuse, WPP’s integrated global team dedicated to serving Colgate-Palmolive, has launched a new brand campaign for Colgate Philippines to highlight that true optimism is not just about smiling through adversity. It’s about having the courage to take action – no matter the challenge.

 The campaign is part of Colgate’s ongoing efforts to focus on equity advertising, bringing to life the brand vision of creating ‘a future for everyone to smile about’. This was launched across Asia Pacific at the end of 2020, with the ‘Smile Strong’ campaign, where Colgate collaborated in the Philippines with powerful ‘muses’ like Brina Maxino, an inspirational teacher who has down syndrome.

 Colgate was also recognised for the #Yimsu campaign in Thailand, empowering people to 'yimsu' and smile with resilience during difficult times. This campaign featured a strongly diverse set of inspiring people as well, and the work was awarded Best Advertising to Embrace Gender Equality by Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

Moving ahead into 2022, the Colgate team is continuing their ambition to deliver real impact on society and elevate equity across borders. In the Philippines, the team looked for new personalities to lift the spirits of the nation battered by the ongoing pandemic. The sense of “pangiti-ngiti lang” (just smiling through it) was prevalent, and the team wanted to find true optimists whose spirit would rise above this.

Marlon Fuentes was discovered by chance when a team member was in a Grab taxi and discovered the driver had Tourette’s syndrome. The colleague was so inspired by the driver’s positive outlook, despite his condition, that she brought the story to the team. Marlon became the new “muse” and inspiration for the latest campaign.

 Dino Ocampo, executive creative director at Red Fuse, said: “With the pandemic reaching a critical point in the Philippines throughout the last year, overall community morale was at an all-time low. Trying to push a message of optimism in a time and place where people could barely find a reason to smile was a challenge. Meeting Marlon was like a breath of fresh air. He inspired us all. Our talented director Direk Joel Limchoc was energised by his outlook and really set the tone to build his story in a way that was meaningful to us all and which also aligned with Colgate’s stance on Optimism in Action.”

 Ocampo said: “It was an honor and a privilege to work on this campaign. It was a pleasure to highlight the heroism and inner strength of a driver with Tourette’s syndrome, and show how he manages to overcome not only his condition, but the prejudices of those around him. Marlon’s captivating optimism has managed to transform and elevate all of us who were fortunate enough to work with him.”