“I told my parents I had discovered a new species of flower.
I took them to the Mumbai Botanical Garden, walked them through an exhibition, and watched their faces slowly fill with pride. They leaned in, read the descriptions, and nodded appreciatively until they scanned for details and realised the ‘new species’ wasn’t rare, exotic, or found in nature. It was something we all own, something we rarely look at: our toothbrush.
When people finally realised the truth in the garden via the QR code, it wasn’t anger. It was laughter and recognition. Indians have a habit of using things well past expiry, and this campaign held up a mirror without accusation. The QR code led to a microsite explaining why changing your toothbrush matters, with the option to buy one instantly through quick commerce. It wasn’t a gimmick; it closed the loop.
That reveal mirrors the opening of ‘Indianis Dentris’ by Colgate. For the first 15–20 seconds of the ad film, you’re convinced you’re looking at a flower. Shot in extreme close-up, it feels soft, delicate, almost poetic, with no brand cues or advertising tells. Then the camera slowly pulls back, and the illusion breaks. The flower is an old, frayed toothbrush used every day, yet never truly seen.
That moment of surprise, discomfort, and recognition became the heart of the campaign. The brief was deceptively simple: One in two Indians doesn’t change their toothbrush. When we heard the statistic, we laughed because we realised we were guilty of it too. Toothbrushes sit quietly in bathroom corners, tucked into mugs, used mechanically, and forgotten. You don’t replace them because you never really look at them.
The campaign truly began with a casual line from the client. Gunjit Jain, Vice President at Colgate-Palmolive, said, ‘June, look at your toothbrush, it starts flowering.’ That sentence stayed with me.
Around the same time, we were sitting in a boardroom with a giant flower wallpaper, something like a dandelion. As we replayed the brief and stared at that image, something clicked. What if we didn’t tell people their toothbrushes were old? What if we showed them by making them see them as something else entirely?
Once we saw toothbrushes as flowers, we couldn’t unsee them. The early ideas were ambitious, even absurd. We joked about ‘discovering’ a new species in the Valley of Flowers and getting NatGeo-style coverage. Reality soon grounded us. Harshad and Kainaz asked the simplest, smartest question: why limit this experience to a few trekkers when you can bring it to everyone?
That’s how the Mumbai Botanical Garden came into the picture. Secrecy was everything. If the truth leaked, the idea would collapse. Director Mahesh Gharat and cinematographer Jignesh Jhaveri obsessed over macro photography, lensing, lighting, and texture to make toothbrushes look exactly like flowers. The reveal had to be unpredictable and flawless. Almost everyone said the same thing: ‘I’m going home and checking my toothbrush.’
The bravest decision we took with the client was hiding the Colgate logo until the very end. While most brands demand visibility in the first few seconds, Colgate trusted the idea. We also chose to shoot real toothbrushes from our own homes instead of recreating them with AI, and that honesty made all the difference.
For me, success wasn’t just about numbers. It showed up in WhatsApp forwards, society group chatter, and most meaningfully, in the campaign being studied as a case study by students at Asmita Applied Arts Institute.”
About Juneston Mathana
Juneston Mathana is the Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy India. He is a writer and has been featured on the IMPACT Hall of Fame cover for the third consecutive year. He has worked on brands such as Colgate, Gillette, Pantene, Raymond, Cipla, Indian Oil, and Sri Lankan Airlines, including a stint in Colombo. At Ogilvy India, he currently leads all category-defining work for Colgate.
Advertisements I loved in 2025
• Chupa Chups Jellies: ‘Samajh Ke Bahaar’
- Steadfast: ‘Dirty Money’
- Whole Truth: ‘Protein Ke Peeche Kya Hai?’
Best Campaigns
Colgate: ‘Cavity-Proof Childhood’
Colgate MaxFresh: ‘Cooling Crystals’
Colgate: ‘Colgate Active Salt: Theatre’
