Safeguard Philippines and creative agency Havas Ortega are taking a new approach to hygiene advocacy by transforming everyday community voices into a living public health tool.
Through a campaign called “Voices of Protection,” the brand is embedding handwashing reminders into the soundscape of communities — broadcasting locally voiced messages in schools, public markets, and health facilities to encourage proper hygiene at the moments when it matters most.
Currently piloted in Marikina City, the initiative features three community representatives delivering handwashing reminders in their own voices and language, now playing across Marikina Elementary School, Parang Market, and the Marikina City Health Office — places where daily routines intersect directly with hygiene risk.
“This is one of the ways we’re actively engaging with and involving communities through the Safe Wash, Safeguard Pinas program,” said Lester Estrada, Vice President for Beauty and Brand Function at Procter & Gamble Philippines. “It’s a simple yet powerful way to help keep communities safe and protected.”
Sound as a Medium for Behavior Change
Produced by Havas Ortega, the campaign uses sound as a behavioral intervention — moving beyond posters and passive reminders, and instead placing prompts directly into people’s daily environments.
“There have been many hygiene campaigns that say the same thing, in the same way,” said Angie Tijam-Tohid, Executive Creative Director at Havas Ortega. “So we designed this to be real-time, urgent, and impossible to ignore — using familiar voices in familiar places to create what we call a live germ-alert system.”
By turning local sound into a public health channel, the campaign aims to make handwashing not just a health message, but a social habit embedded into everyday life.
Expanding Beyond Marikina
Following its initial rollout, Safeguard and Havas Ortega plan to expand Voices of Protection to more cities across the Philippines — recruiting local voices and tailoring messages to different communities nationwide.
The initiative is part of Safeguard’s broader Safe Wash, Safeguard Pinas program, which works with partners to improve hygiene access and education, particularly in public schools and community facilities.
Through this approach, Safeguard and Havas Ortega are redefining how public health communication works — not by broadcasting louder, but by broadcasting closer.
