The Villains of Faceville- Blackheads!

I know, blackheads are those sinister beasts we can never seem to beat, poking out of our pores, mocking us, making us feel miserable. But now Garnier Pure Active's new campaign shows us, that these little Facevillains have personalities too, and not very nice ones!

Blackheads are not something you want on your face -- ever. The word alone is not a pretty one. So before this skin issue came to a head, so to speak, the experts picked their brains. This summer, Skin care leader Garnier Pure Active has come to the rescue of many distressed teenagers and young adults haunted by this skin problem.

Talking and educating people about Blackheads is not the easiest task to accomplish. So Garnier Pure Active has come up with a campaign that will not only educate the audience but also engage them in a way never done before. So after a lot of outrageous thinking by some imaginative people, Garnier Pure Active has unveiled the Bust Blackheads Campaign.

The Thought:

Get the Blackhead talking! Give an identity to the blackheads and educate the audience through quirky characters, instead of going the usual preachy way. How is that done? 
Design characters that are likeable yet have a personality annoying enough for them to eventually die at the hands of the hero the “Blackheads Uprooting Scrub”.  The task is to ensure that when a person sees these characters, he knows they are ‘Black Heads’ in the true sense of the word.

Meet the Blackheads:

Garnier Pure Active has created a fictitious town called Faceville which for obvious reasons resides on your face & the citizens are called Facevillains taking into consideration the damage that they cause to your face. The Facevillians have names characteristic to a blackheads personality.

Education through Engagement:

Blackheads are black spots on the skin. The main reason for its occurrence is oil secretion in the skin which leads to the growth of ugly blackheads. Apart from oil; pollution, sweat, improper personal hygiene, dust, etc are also the other major reasons. Now reading these above 4 lines could probably put you to sleep. So Garnier Pure Active has decided to educate the users through funny comics and situations that occur on Faceville which is the Blackhead world.
In order to engage the users, the brand will be running a series of contests and fun interactive quizzes which allow Fans to be a part of Faceville and interact with them. 

Here are a few funny situations: 

Media:

Facebook being the central hub for the campaign, digital banners across sites such as YouTube, Yahoo, Indiatimes, In.com, IDiva, the Google Network and other niche sites are being used to proliferate the message and generate visibility.

The teasers have consumers guessing who these ‘characters’ really are. The objective is to create intrigue and generate a sense of ‘likeability’ for the design and also communicate that these characters are ‘bad’

Sustenance: 

The sustenance phase of the campaign will be revealed in two stages that will educate consumers about blackheads. Apart from being visually stimulating, the campaign focuses on core communication and has strong elements of education and zeroing in on the product truth. 

While the campaign will be on for 60 days, it took close to two and a half months to create the characters.

The aim is not only to engage but also to educate. The campaign has generated a lot of interest and people are increasingly talking about the brand.

Interesting campaign right? Check out more on this fun campaign on their Facebook page here and their app Faceville Times, which happens to be Faceville's Weekly newspaper, here.