Mortein ‘Stop Diseases’ campaign to combat dengue wild fire nation-wide

Mortein, rated as ‘Sri Lanka’s No. 1 Household Insecticides Brand’ (as per Market Research Data) has initiated a National dengue education and awareness program, “Mortein Stop Diseases” for the 4th consecutive year.

With the escalating impact and increase of the dengue battle, the company has devised a comprehensive campaign in creating a Dengue free environment in the country.

The Managing Director of Reckitt Benckiser, Reazul Chowdhury speaking on the Company’s ‘Mortein Stops Disease’ community awareness and education campaign states, “Mortein has undertaken different initiatives to educate the consumer on how best they can prevent all mosquito-borne diseases. The product provides various options for eradicating mosquitoes. However, people can greatly reduce the risk of mosquito borne diseases by taking basic preventive measures and this is what Mortein is trying to educate and empower”.

Speaking on the initiative, Marketing Director of Reckitt Benckiser, Zakaria Ahmed noted, “The campaign is planned to cover over 200 key locations across Sri Lanka, supported by Neth FM as its media partner. He further stated that this campaign is enthusiastically received by people from all walks of life, as both education as well as an element of entertainment is combined to make it easily understandable by both young & old. Over the past four years an investment of over Rs. 20m has been spent on similar initiatives to create awareness on both protection and prevention of mosquito-borne diseases.

Surangi Fernando, Product Group Manager elaborating on the mechanisms of the “Mortein - Stop Diseases Campaign” said a Mobile Unit is touring the various provinces, providing edutainment, with “Louie-the pest” pointing out the areas he breeds in; such as stagnant water, garbage dumps, and other unsanitary environments. A drama team also provides further enforcement, enacting the seriousness of the diseases”. The awareness programs are conducted in public places such as bus stands, markets and religious places, where distribution of leaflets, bus sticker campaigns, coil sampling, banners, pennants, posters and live updates serving to further reinforce the message. Furthermore message boards are erected creating awareness of the ongoing battle against Dengue.

The “STOP” campaign commenced during the Poson festival in Anuradhapura, then continued to Kataragama where the activation extended a clean-up campaign running parallel to the awareness campaign; in association with the local government authority and media partner. Over a Million people were educated on disease prevention through both events.

“Dengue prevention and protection is both the responsibility of the individual as well as the local community. Thus, we achieved the objective of educating the community” said Fernando in conclusion, “Whatever educational / awareness programmes may be conducted, it is ultimately up to the individual. Each individual has to be aware of his / her surroundings and its dangers and work towards eliminating the risks. We can only inform and guide them. They have to understand the situation and take precautions.”

In 2007, Mortein carried out a Dengue awareness programme; ‘Operation Red Alert’ and in 2008, the highly successful Mortein SLAM [Student Leaders Against Mosquitoes] programme was carried out in association with the Ministries of Health and Education, and in 2009 commenced the ‘Mortein Stop Diseases’, each year edutaining the nation on Dengue awareness and prevention.

Mortein is the complete pest protection brand renowned both locally as well as globally. “The product range consists of Coils, Aerosols, Vaporizers, Mats, Refills and Rat products, with Mortein commanding the market leader position in almost all the segments”.

Mortein is marketed by Reckitt Benckiser (Lanka) Ltd, which includes brand portfolios such as Dettol, Harpic, Lysol, Airwick, Veet, Strepsils, Cardinal and Colmans.

Photo caption: The mobile unit travelling across the country; creating awareness, Louie the pest and the drama team enacting the seriousness of mosquito-borne diseases.