The client wanted an unbranded PSA campaign about the importance of using sunscreen every day. No product to sell. No brand equity to lean on. Just useful information, and a visual idea people would actually want to look at.
The assignment was to make sun protection feel relevant to real life: indoors and out, at work, on the road, at the beach, on the trail, and everywhere in between.
After the first stock search, the direction began to click: a relatable person, actually living their life in the sun. The client responded immediately to the imagery. That was the first moment I knew the campaign could make an impact.
“The goal wasn't to make sunscreen look like a product. It was to make protecting yourself feel like a normal part of living.”Creative direction principle
The visual language was deliberately flexible. The same core idea could move from a retail display to a social post, a digital banner, a poster, a carousel, meeting collateral, and more without losing its identity.
That versatility became one of the project's biggest strengths,and one of the reasons the campaign kept finding new places to live.
Because the campaign was designed to be shared, I pushed for a set of campaign guidelines. The client wanted the assets to be available to others; I wanted to make sure that once the work left my hands, it still looked like the work we created.
In the end, I developed and distributed the guidelines alongside the asset download. Being the keeper of a system means thinking about what happens after launch, too.
I've had the pleasure of seeing work appear for brands like AT&T and Bausch + Lomb. This one still surprised me. There was no product logo helping people recognize it, just the idea, the imagery, and the message.
Retailers that weren't initially convinced have since adopted the campaign as an important sun-safety initiative. Phase 2 is currently in the works.