The Social Distancing Prayer Mat
Reckitt
Issue 60 | September 2021
Agency
Impact BBDO, BBDO Pakistan
Creative Team
Regional Executive Creative Director Ali Rez Executive Creative Director, Dubai Marie Claire Maalouf Executive Creative Director, MD Pakistan Atiya Zaidi Creative Director Haseeb Akram Writers Ali Rez, Rani Amayri Art Director Khaled Said Associate Creative Director Faryal Ali Associate Art Directors Hassaan Aftaab, Saad Hussain Designer Jithesh Narayanan
Production Team
GM Pakistan Farooq Qazi Head of Social Alize Munir Creative Manager Raza Humayyun Community Manager Faseeh Abdullah
Other Credits
Director of Marketing Humayun Farooq Head of PR, Corporate Comms Nameer Jamillee PR Manager Yamna Khan Media Manager Shayan Ahmed
Date
May 2021
Background
Traditional prayer mats, the jaanemaz, are about 70cm wide and used in mosques where Muslims pray next to each other with their shoulders practically touching.
In August 2021, Pakistan was braced for a fourth pandemic wave with the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
The government’s directives for social distancing were largely being ignored.
Perhaps Dettol, long associated with products that protect families from harmful germs, could help.
Idea
With massive infections looking likely when the Eid Festival brought millions into the mosques for prayer, Dettol introduced the social distancing prayer mat, a safe 180cm wide with a message within the design that reminded worshippers to keep apart. The design borrowed geometric motifs from traditional Islamic art and the mat itself was printed on sustainable and cost-efficient non-tearable paper. It could be easily rolled up or folded and used several times.
Results
The mat was endorsed by the Council of Islamic Ideology and was supported by government officials. It was used in some of Pakistan’s largest mosques.
The mat is available as an open-source file for anyone anywhere to download and print. The plans were for the mat to be used in Egypt, India and other countries with a large Muslim population.
Our Thoughts
At the time of writing (end of August) Pakistan had 1,152,481 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There have been 25,064 deaths. (In the UK, there have been 6.7 million cases and 132,000 deaths.) It has been good to see brands big and small coming together to try to flatten the curve of new infections. Research has shown that millennials in particular believe that marketers have an important role to play. The goodwill generated by Dettol now, empathising with their customers, will surely come through in higher brand-love scores and improved sales when the virus is finally beaten.