Signal celebrates five decades of caring for oral hygiene in Sri Lanka

Friday, 15 June 2012 00:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Signal, the oral care expert of Sri Lanka, which pioneered initiatives to inculcate hygienic oral care habits among Sri Lankans for five decades, has once again come forward to reiterate their commitment to protect the world famous Sri Lankan smile for the future.

From left: Unilever Director Marketing Ramani Samarasundara addresses the crowd and Sri Lanka Dental Association Past President Dr. Gamini de Silva, Unilever Category Head Oral Care Nilushi Jayatilake and Unilever Brand Manager Signal Mihira Kulatunga

Unilever Brand Manager Signal Mihira Kulatunga, Unilever Category Head Oral Care Nilushi Jayatilake and Sri Lanka Dental Association Past President Dr. Gamini De Silva address the crowd

In keeping with this approach, Signal has launched a three-pronged action plan to protect and promote the ‘Sri Lankan Smile,’ which includes: Promoting good oral hygiene habits; educating on good oral care/delivering professional services through outreach programs and delivering superior oral care products of international standards that has been scientifically proven.

In order to maintain good oral hygiene throughout one’s life, it is important to inculcate correct oral care habits among people, especially from their childhood and brushing teeth twice-a-day with fluoridated toothpaste in this regard is a must. In order to popularise this practice and create a habit change among children, Signal this year too launched the ‘Brush and Dance Challenge’ campaign stemming from the huge success it achieved last year through the ‘21 day Night Time Brushing challenge’.

This initiative introduced in 2009 has managed to change the oral care habits of Sri Lankans considerably, increasing the night time brushing practice from 30% of the population in 2009 to 40% by 2011.

Via educating on good oral care and delivering professional services through outreach programs Signal aims to reiterate the importance and create awareness of using a fluoridated toothpaste. A mass media campaigns to educate the consumers and the trade was launched in May continuing through to the second half of the year.

Apart from this the acclaimed ‘Sinaa Bo Wewa’ outreach program of Signal will take a new face and will travel from town to town cultivating good oral hygiene habits, conducting free dental clinics and educating people on relevant topics.

Signal, the foremost oral care brand that has been looking after the Sri Lankan smile for more than five decades, has always worked towards giving an internationally acclaimed product for the local consumer. Backed by Unilever’s research and development prowess and developed in partnership with the FDI World Dental Federation and International Agency for Dental Research, Signal continues to improve and innovate their oral care range to give the best possible care for the consumer.

Mihira Kulatunga, Brand Manager Signal said: “Instead of being just another oral care product, Signal has revolutionised the category by continuously innovating the brand with better value additions for the consumer and by pioneering sustainable and deep-seated consumer engagement and CSR programs to improve oral health in Sri Lanka.”

Throughout the past 5 decades going beyond its commercial objective, Signal has been talking to generations of parents about teeth, and more recently the importance of sustainable oral hygiene. From being the first toothpaste to introduce a fluoridated toothpaste to Sri Lanka to being the first brand to do dental outreach programs, Signal has ingrained itself with the masses of the country as an oral care expert. And today it continues on its journey to improve Sri Lankan oral care keeping true to its vision to ‘Protect the Sri Lankan Smile for a Lifetime – Sina Bo Wewa’.