Bineet Jain on how Otrivin turned pollutants into instruments of change for kids

Around 98% of children in India breathe toxic air and it is considered as the world’s largest environmental health threat. Otrivin’s ‘Actions to Breathe Cleaner’ program promotes the adoption of everyday actions helping to reduce the impact of air pollution on children’s breathing health.

Otrivin Breathe Clean launched the ‘Pollution Pencils’ initiative, in order to improve air quality in schools. The pioneering new initiative, ‘Pollution Pencils’, by Otrivin Breathe Clean turned carbon collected from the air purifiers into by-products used as school supplies for local children. Air purifiers were installed by Otrivin Breathe Clean in schools in Bengaluru. The specially designed purifiers, installed both inside and outside the school buildings, collected over 2 billion cubic feet of air particles or ‘pollution residue’. Mixed with granite form the core of 10,000 pencils, specially produced, and designed, to be distributed by teachers to the school children for their use. It focused on the solution, transforming the pollution residue into pencils acing as instruments of change for the kids.

‘Pollution Pencils’ is the latest initiative under the Actions to Breathe Cleaner program from nasal health expert Otrivin, aiming to assist in mitigating the impact of air pollution on children, most vulnerable to its effects. Since 2021, Otrivin has successfully piloted prominent initiatives, including the Air Bubble.

In conversation with Adgully, Bineet Jain, Category Head – Pain & Respiratory, Haleon, speaks about how the pioneering new initiative ‘Pollution Pencils’ turned pollution residue collected from the air purifiers into by-products (Pollution Capture Pencils) used as school supplies for local children.

What is the ‘Pollution Capture Pencils’ initiative all about?

Otrivin Breathe Clean launched the ‘Pollution Capture Pencils’ initiative to improve air quality in schools as a part of its ‘Actions to Breathe Cleaner’ program. The pioneering new initiative turned pollution residue collected from the air purifiers into by-products (Pollution Capture Pencils) used as school supplies for local children. Under this initiative, air purifiers were installed in Bengaluru schools. The specially designed purifiers, installed both inside and outside the school buildings, cleaned over 2 billion cubic feet of air particles or ‘pollution residue’. Carbon collected from the air purifiers turned into Pollution Capture Pencils. These pollution capture pencils will act as instruments of change for the kids.

What has been the impact of this initiative?

Otrivin’s purpose is to enable children to breathe their best. Otrivin promotes adoption of everyday actions that help reduce the impact of air pollution on children’s breathing health. Till date, we have made 10,000 pencils from the gathered pollution residue. We have distributed most pencils to the school children while we intend to use the rest of them to drive conversations around actions to breathe cleaner initiative.The Pollution Capture Pencils was a pilot project and therefore we wanted to see the viability and success of the initiative. Approximately one thousand school children have benefitted from installing air purifiers. However, this will be an ongoing project and will involve more schools in the future.

How did the idea come about?

Otrivin’s purpose is to enable consumers to breathe their best. Otrivin promotes adoption of everyday actions that help reduce the impact of air pollution on children’s breathing health. Otrivin Breathe Clean launched the ‘Pollution Capture Pencils’ initiative to improve air quality in schools as a part of this program.

What are the upcoming activities and developments under the ‘Pollution Pencils’ initiative?

Otrivin's Actions to Breathe Cleaner program promotes the adoption of everyday actions that help reduce the impact of air pollution on children's breathing health.

Phase 1: Air purifiers were installed in Bengaluru schools, which collected over 2 billion cubic feet of air particles or ‘pollution residue’. Carbon collected from the air purifiers turned into Pollution Capture Pencils.

Phase 2: Children used Pollution Capture Pencils as an instrument for change and write open letters.  Through these 1000 open letters, children shared their pollution story with the world, capturing how air pollution impacts their life and what small steps they are taking as young kids to make this world a better place.

Phase 3: At Comicon India, children sketched up their imagination to a canvas about their superheroes who can fight against pollution and give them this special gift, the gift of breathing clean.These sketches will be converted into NFTs and auctioned off virtually, the proceeds from their sales will go toward purchasing air purifiers for children’s classrooms - thereby fulfilling the mission of the imaginary superheroes.

What is the current state of air pollution in India?

Air pollution worsens during times of the year, especially during winter seasons as cooler temperatures and a drop in the wind trap pollutants in the atmosphere for longer.

While stubble burning in farming states contributes to the worsening aur quality, industrial activities, construction, and heavy vehicular use contribute throughout the year to air pollution across India.

On the Environmental Performance Index 2022, India is ranked 178 out of 180 countries in the environmental health and ecosystem vitality ranking. In the climate change mitigation category, which measures progress to combat global climate change, India is ranked 165 out of 180.

What are the marketing activities undertaken by Otrivin? Please elaborate on your marketing strategy.

The marketing activities being undertaken by Otrivin are focused on driving relevance and education for nasal sprays for providing fast relief from blocked nose. Otrivin will continue to focus on the campaign that highlights the impact of a blocked nose on everyday life moments. The campaign is a series of films with emphasis on everyday struggles when breathing is impacted due to a blocked nose. While sleep is one of the biggest moments that gets disrupted when one has a blocked nose, people also find it difficult to concentrate on work/ study, eating food becomes a struggle and some tend to become cranky and cannot enjoy the time spent with their loved ones due to a blocked nose.

What are the other initiatives launched by Otrivin Breathe Clean?

Otrivin Breathe Clean aims to promote everyday actions that help reduce exposure to air pollution on children and their families with this campaign. The brand has always been an active player and rolled out various initiatives in the past and created conversations to draw awareness for air pollution. Such as project Air Care where the brand worked with xx to install.

What are the growth projections of Otrivin for the year 2023?

Continuing the momentum, Otrivin is projected to grow at a strong double digit growth in 2023.

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