Colgate Launches ‘Smile’ Campaign via Facebook

On June 28th, Colgate launched a new campaign in Britain encouraging fans to take pictures of themselves smiling, post them to Facebook, and potentially have their photo displayed on digital billboards in the UK.  The toothpaste brand aims to collect 1 million ‘smile’ pictures by summer’s end, and will donate £100,000 to Barnardo’s (a UK children’s charity) if that goal is reached.

UK fans of the toothpaste brand can upload their ‘smile’ photos onto Colgate’s UK Facebook page, and the photos will randomly appear on billboards in London, Liverpool and Birmingham.  The campaign was created by VML London, and ClickZ quotes VML account manager Gemma Brown, “Integrating the photos of Facebook users is a good fun incentive for anyone who’s dreamed of starring in their own billboard campaign.”

Will Colgate reach its goal of 1 million smiles? Is ‘randomly’ being on a billboard – and/or the opportunity to support a popular charity – enough incentive to engage with a brand on Facebook?