Domestos - The Public Toilet

Background

The global sanitation crisis affected a staggering 2.7 billion people. With no access to clean, private toilets, many were being forced to go in dangerous and unsanitary public places. It is estimated nearly 7 million children die before reaching the age of five because of diarrhoea and pneumonia. Unfortunately the taboos of talking about open defecation meant that awareness of the issue was relatively low.

The task was to do something about this.

Idea

The Public Toilet was an idea designed to force people to think about sanitation and break the taboo of the loo around the time of World Toilet Day, November 19^th.

It consisted of a large, interactive statue of a man, apparently sitting on the lavatory. People interested in the project could upload their photos to the face of the sculpture from Facebook using their mobiles or their PCs.

Standing almost 5 metres tall and made of shiny porcelain tiling, this pooing human figure built by the artists at Greyworld grabbed the public’s attention and made them think about notions of dignity and privacy.

Thousands of people recorded their ‘poo face’ and watched it on a live feed of the Tower Bridge location.

The playful nature of the piece allowed people to overcome their usual aversion to the subject matter and learn more about a serious issue. It also enabled the subject of sanitation in under-developed countries to go viral, with famous faces like Steven Fry helping the project to get picked up by the media.

Results

Articles and mentions:

Al Jazeera, BBC Radio, The Metro, The Daily Telegraph, Huffington Post, MSN News, Time Out, The Londonist, Digital Spy, Design Week, Steven Fry tweet and many more.          

Our Thoughts

Several things are interesting about this. The first being Unilever’s commitment to a sustainable future. And that means better sanitary conditions in many parts of the world. Domestos, the domestic detergent which has waged war on germs for decades, is ideally placed to take this stance. The campaign may not sell Domestos directly but it certainly wraps the brand in human warmth and in these times when people need buy into a brand before they’ll consider buying the product, that’s not unimportant.

I also love the fact that art – or sculpture, specifically – gives Unilever permission to talk about going to the lavatory. We’re so used to artists trying to shock us that this installation doesn’t shock but seduces through its humour.