How SPD used Temporary Tattoos for its Powerful Public Education Campaign

At Gumtoo, we love making beautiful custom products that add value and joy to our customers' lives. 

Today, we'd like to share how SPD, a Singaporean charity set up to help people with disabilities used temporary tattoos to run a public education campaign. 

Get ready to be blown by this powerful campaign!

SPD's UNLABEL Campaign 

The campaign featured four personalities from different walks of life who have not let physical disability define them.

Zoe Zora-one of the four faces of the campaign 

Zoe Zora shares her story and perspective Image via SPD

Zoe Zora shares her story and perspective

Image via SPD

SPD aims to maximize the potential and integrate people with disabilities into mainstream society through its rehabilitation, vocation skills, IT training, daycare, and other programmes.

Society and the mainstream media give harmful labels such as Sickly, Powerless, Dependent, Jobless, and Unworthy to people with disabilities. Such negative attitudes can become a barrier towards the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community.

SPD wants to change perceptions by focusing on the abilities and achievements of those who have defied these stereotypes with its public education campaign titled UNLABEL. The campaign aims to start making people look at the person, and not the disability.

SPD’s UNLABEL Campaign Tattoos Image via SPD

SPD’s UNLABEL Campaign Tattoos

Image via SPD

We spoke to Melissa Tan and Gordon Ho, Senior Communications & Outreach Executives at SPD about the campaign and how they used temporary tattoos to drive home the message.

Excerpts of the discussion are below:

A participant in the campaign flaunts the #UNLABEL tattoo stickerImage via Instagram

A participant in the campaign flaunts the #UNLABEL tattoo sticker

Image via Instagram

Gumtoo: How did SPD narrow on temporary tattoos for the UNLABEL campaign?

SPD team: We wanted to create greater awareness for the campaign and the idea of temporary tattoos came up in our discussion. The campaign’s message on temporary tattoos would make powerful visuals while engaging the audience to take action. People, especially millennials want to share tattoo images on social media giving a larger reach to our campaign.

Gumtoo: How did SPD use the tattoos?

The UNLABEL pledge with tattoo stickersImage via Instagram

The UNLABEL pledge with tattoo stickers

Image via Instagram

SPD team: We ran the campaign on SPD’s website, our social media platforms as well as on some SMRT train stations. We mailed the UNLABEL pack consisting of the temporary tattoo and a postcard to people who wanted to support the campaign. They were asked to upload a photo of themselves with the UNLABEL tattoo sticker on Facebook and Instagram and tag @SPDsingapore and hashtag #UNLABELSPD. SPD would post the best images on their social wall and participants stood a chance to win attractive prizes.

Gumtoo: How was the response to the UNLABEL tattoo campaign?

SPD team: Given that this was the first time we used tattoo stickers; we were surprised by the response! A lot of people wrote in asking for the UNLABEL tattoos.

We would love to explore different types of tattoo stickers for greater engagement with the public in the future.

Gumtoo: Thanks Melissa and Gordon for your time. We are happy to provide ideas, design guidance, and any other assistance for furthering SPD’s message.