One of our portfolio companies – Clovin, producer of cleaning products and household chemicals, has recently launched a particularly interesting and useful social campaign – “My firstpoison”. Within days of its launch, the campaign won the Ad Age Editor’s Choice Award, the most respected medium in the advertising industry in the US, and the Ad of the Day status of the British Campaign Magazine.

Following Bartosz Woźnicki, the head of Sales and Marketing and the Board member at Clovin, we learn that the campaign aims to publicize the problem of harmful hormonal substances still present and still being used in many cosmetic products available on the European markets.

– We are introducing a special marking on the packaging of our products, offering the category of products free from endocrine active substances. We want the industry to start cleaning up their products themselves without waiting for EU decisions. The consumer has a right to know which products are clean and which contain harmful substances – he says.

Therefore, we invite you to read a short interview with Bartosz Woźnicki, in which he explains the idea of the campaign in more detail:

Where did the idea for your campaign come from?

The idea for this campaign had been evolving over some time. Originally, it was supposed to accompany our new product line of washing liquids, i.e. Clever Neutro Plus. It is a unique product on the market in terms of its purity of composition. That coincided with an industry infamous case of lilial – an ingredient commonly found in fragrances and aromas. It had been proven to be harmful, and the European Union started work on banning it from being used in cosmetics. The legislative process, however, took a long time, and in the meantime lilial was still being used as a component of numerous cosmetics and cleaning products. Since March this year, its use in EU countries has been banned, and all products containing this ingredient have had to be withdrawn from the market. Unfortunately, this ban only applies to cosmetics, and lilial can still be used in cleaning products.

Incidentally, there is another group of suspicious products that is still in use. These are hormonally active substances, which for many years have been known to be harmful, and countries such as Denmark, France, Sweden and the Netherlands have launched their own consumer protection programs which are strongly against products containing these substances.  Some of them, such as bisphenol, have already been banned. The European Union, as in the case of lilian, is working on finalizing regulations concerning the ban, but such a process always takes a long time.

So,  here we get to the genesis of our campaign – as Clovin we would like to start a big public discussion on this topic. We are introducing a special marking on the packaging of our products, offering the category of products free from endocrine active substances. We want the industry to start cleaning up their products themselves without waiting for EU decisions. The consumer has a right to know which products are clean and which contain harmful substances.

How harmful is this hazardous component there?

The conducted research shows that these substances are very harmful, but especially dangerous for pregnant or breastfeeding women. They pass through the bloodstream into breast milk and, as a result, into the baby’s body. These substances affect the entire endocrine system and, in the long run, they can, for example, cause diabetes and adversely affect the overall development of children. At the moment, Polish consumers in general are not aware of the harmful effects of using hormonally active substances. We want it to be changed.

How is this campaign going?

The campaign started on Mother’s Day because we thought it was a good time to open this kind of discussion in a public space. At the start we were supported by Agnieszka Pocztarska, the founder of the Readymakers website, who was featured in the television Dzień Dobry TVN program on this occasion. Our activities are very broad – from the use of nationwide traditional media – television, newspapers and large online portals, to being active on social media platforms, such as Instagram, for example. One of the most popular influencers in Poland is also involved in our campaign. What is important is that we concentrate on educational aspects rather than product promotion.

At the same time, we initiated contact with the European Union in order to encourage decision‑makers to act faster in terms of withdrawing these hormonal substances from circulation and introducing labelling. In our laboratory, we have developed a special series of perfumes “My first poison”, which contains substances that are legal to use, but studies have shown their penetration into breast milk, and at the same time are suspected of disrupting the endocrine system. On the occasion of Mother’s Day, these perfumes were offered to mothers who were Members of the European Parliament with a request to push to change the law, so that pregnant women and nursing mothers could decide for themselves whether they wanted to use such substances or not. We wanted the information about the hazard  to be included on the labels of those products in which substances had been used. We hope that this campaign will translate into real effects and increase public awareness of this problem. After all, it’s about health – yours and ours.

In the first week, the campaign was well received and honored on a global scale. After just three days, it was named the campaign of the day by the AdAge editorial staff (the largest advertising medium in the US), and on June 1, it was selected by the Campaign as the Campaign of the Day in the UK.

Such reception and publicity are especially pleasing because they show that the way we chose is right and that together, as an industry, we can initiate actions that are good for both, patients and consumers.

For more information on the campaign go to:

www.myfirstpoison.pl