Unilever Unveils Lifebuoy Soap

Unilever Ghana Limited, the nations’ leading fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer, has launched the new advanced Lifebuoy soap, the world’s number-one germ protection.

Lifebuoy soap contains an Active5 Germ Protection Formula, which has been laboratory proven to tackle both bacteria and viruses. It comes in a new and improved shape, packaging and different variants that produces 30 percent more lather.

“The lifebuoy soap will mark the beginning of a critical behavioural change that will impact on the daily hygiene practices of Ghanaians,” Managing Director of Unilever West Africa, David Mureithi, said at the launch in Accra.

Mureithi added: “Lifebuoy will focus on educating consumers using the hand-wash demonstration to ensure they not only wash their hands with soap, but do so correctly.”

Globally, Lifebuoy is one of the oldest brands and has been the number-one-selling health soap since its appearance 1894. First launched in the UK, the Lifebuoy brand has travelled across the world – reaching Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Today, more than 1.6 billion people around the world trust Lifebuoy products to give them 100 percent germ protection.

The brand has also offered health and hygiene solutions in times of crises: for example, in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Asia, Lifebuoy bars were distributed across India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and provide germ protection.

In 2005, over 200,000 bars of Lifebuoy soap were donated to UNICEF and the Red Cross to support earthquake relief operations in Northern India and Pakistan. “In Africa, lifebuoy has a vision to change the hygiene behaviour of 300 million people by 2015,” disclosed Mureithi.

“How coincidental it is that the Ghana launch is also at a time when there is an outbreak of the cholera disease in certain parts of the country,” the Deputy Minister of Health, Joseph Mettle-Nunoo said.

According to the Ghana Health Service, the recent cholera outbreak has claimed about 70 lives out of over 4,000 reported cases.

Mettle-Nunoo hopes the launch, coupled with other social interventions by Unilever, will bring the needed behavioural change among the general public.