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October, 2018

On World Iodine Day, capturing India's attention with the #MissingI

How Tata Salt urged the nation to pay attention to iodine nutrition on Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day 2018.

In India, our partners at Tata Salt captured the attention of the media and the nation when they rolled out the #MissingI campaign, taking the letter ‘I’ out of national headlines in order to create awareness of the importance of iodine in the diet for Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day on October 21st. It was then unveiled that the #MissingI is Iodine, and consumers were asked to check whether the missing ‘I’ is missing from their body too.

'I' was missing in the Indian Times on Global IDD Prevention Day, bringing attention to the importance of eliminating iodine deficiency.

The campaign had a staggering reach and impact. The letter ‘I’ went missing from the online portal of Times of India, and from headlines on Republic, a popular news channel, as well as tweets by major social media influencers such as cricket commenter and journalist Harsha Bhogle, and cricketer Gautam Gambhir.

On Twitter, the campaign trended for about 17 hours, garnered about 20,000 conversations, and made tens of millions of impressions, according to Social Samosa Achtung Link öffnet sich in einem neuen Fenster

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The campaign urged the nation to choose iodized salt.

“The role of iodine in mental development still needs to be etched in to the minds of people, and in an innovative way so that the message is not ignored,” said Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy India (West), the creative group that conceptualized the campaign. “So, on Global Iodine Deficiency Prevention Day, the #MissingI idea of making the letter ‘I’ disappear across big impact media properties like TV, Print, Digital & Social definitely serves the purpose of getting the nation to notice Iodine’s importance and spark conversations about it.” (MediaInfoline Achtung Link öffnet sich in einem neuen Fenster

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IGN’s Regional Coordinator for South Asia Chandrakant S Pandav said, “A pinch of iodised salt can give us freedom from preventable brain damage as we continue on our journey to become a healthy nation. Universal salt iodization, WHO’s preferred strategy for the elimination of IDD, results in saving 1.5 billion IQ points in children globally every year.”

nd a w ll f ght West nd es n the f rst OD game today. W ll the v s tors spr ng a surpr se? We w ll f nd out soon. #MissingI
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) October 21, 2018

Cr cket s a sport wh ch requ res more than phys cal strength. Your bra n must also be act ve all the t me. od ne s very cruc al for ch ldren dream ng to play for nd a one day. #MissingI
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 21, 2018

The day was a giant success for India and for Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day. India, with the second largest country population in the world, has adequate iodine intake at the national level, but significant disparity between populations and states, and insufficient iodine nutrition among pregnant women (IGN Global Scorecard of Iodine Nutrition 2017 Achtung Link öffnet sich in einem neuen Fenster

Read more highlights from India’s Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day:

In Tamenglong, India, the District Health Society observed the day with a gathering of doctors and dignitaries at the District Hospital Duigailong, Tamenglong (Imphal Free Press).

In Gujarat, India, UNICEF launched an IDD awareness campaign at a Higher Secondary School in Gandhinagar, in collaboration with Health and Education Departments of Government, that included school children chanting and handing out leaflets (UNICEF India).