With the mission of being the “Creative Force for Meaningful Social Change,”TBWA\HAKUHODO has been tackling various social issues by making the most of our creativity as a Disruption®︎ Company.
Examples include projects such as “Restaurant of Mistaken Orders,” which promoted understanding of dementia, “Para Pingpong Table,” which visualized physical-disability through the power of design, and “The Reborn Light,” streetlights that uses reused batteries from electric vehicles. These projects have been able to reach many people through the power of advertising and celebrated globally, winning numerous advertising awards in Japan and abroad including the Cannes Lions.

（“Restaurant of Mistaken Orders,” which promoted understanding of dementia）

（”Para Pingpong Table,” which visualized physical-disability through the power of design）

（”The Reborn Light,” streetlights that uses reused batteries from electric vehicles and illuminating a town in need of new infrastructure to recover from the natural disaster）

To tackle various social issues in the world we need creativity to identify “what the problem is” in the first place, and the ability to implement solutions by connecting and collaborating with appropriate people and communities. We TBWA\HAKUHODO have both of these as our strengths, and to make full use of our strength we launched a program called “TH for GOOD” in FY2020 that enables our pirates (TH members) to use their work time and company resources for socially meaningful projects by utilizing their skills and talents.

“TH FOR GOOD” – How it works

“TH FOR GOOD” supports employees’ voluntary For GOOD (socially meaningful) activities through two main approaches.

① Individual/private For Good activities during working hours

We simply say “social issues” but there are just so many themes in wide range of fields and areas. TBWA\HAKUHODO thought that the best way to contribute to society would be for each of our pirates to utilize his/her strengths and engage in activities in areas in which he/she is personally interested. That’s why TBWA\HAKUHODO decided to recognize the part of the time employees used for their private social contribution activities as company working hours.

② Activities recognized as agency projects

When a member’s social contribution activity (described above) has potential for expansion and continuity, he/she can submit an application to have the activity recognized as an official agency project. This is designed to further improve the quality of social contribution and value creation related activities. It allows the member to ask the company to provide support for expenses and to request for adding team members, such as creators and copywriters. This approach has led to the creation of many startup teams that address various issues such as diversity, environment, and SDGs.

Projects that were born from “TH FOR GOOD”

So far many projects were born from TH for GOOD that lets anyone with a passion to make a difference in the world can launch a project, showing how TH pirates are passionate about brining meaningful changes in the society. Here are some of the projects born from TH for GOOD that were officially released publicly. Many are currently in the incubation phase, ready to surprise the world, so watch this space!

“We are Viruses Project”, making handwashing into a fun game and helping kids to understand the importance of handwashing
“We are Viruses Project” was launched to help children understand the importance of hand washing in the wake of COVID-19. The team designed and produced a soap tablet (Pocket Soap), which characterizes invisible viruses and disappears in 30 seconds (the recommended duration for handwashing to kill viruses).

“SDGs Action Guide”, giving insights for business to start and make progress in SDGs promoting projects
While many companies are trying to implement projects to promote SDGs, many of them find it hard to continue the project on a sustained basis. In response to this situation, the team has created and provided a framework that systematizes hints for moving SDGs-related projects forward, utilizing the know-how of idea development and the methodology of grasping trends that TBWA\HAKUHODO has cultivated over many years.

“SDGs Preamble Liberal Translation Project”, conveying the passion and intrinsic value of the SDGs Declarations in an easy-to-understand manner
The SDGs are based on the text “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, in which the principles and plans that the SDGs aim to achieve are passionately and emotionally laid out. In response to the situation where the existence and importance of the “Preamble,” which is said to contain the essential values of the SDGs, has not been widely disseminated in Japan, the team has launched an liberal translation project to convey the passion and essential of the SDG declaration text to a wider audience. As a first step, an audio version of the text, translated by contemporary artist Kyunchome and read by voice actress Rieko Takahashi, who played a central character in the Tribe Gundam, was released to public.

Through “TH for GOOD,” TBWA\HAKUHODO aims to continue to bring “meaningful changes in society” without being bound by the methods of advertising.
In addition to those listed above, there are many other projects that are actively taking on the challenge of solving social problems that are ready to surprise the world. We will introduce them here in STORIES in the future, so please stay tuned!

Communication team (koho@tbwahakuhodo.co.jp)