The number of single parents in Thailand has risen to 1.34 million, with 80% of them being single mothers. Lacking support from Thai society, single mothers face discrimination and oppression in their everyday lives.

In addition to the financial, emotional, and familial pressures they must face alone, they are often stigmatized as inadequate mothers who are incapable of providing their children with a better future. As a brand that believes everyone deserves a future worth smiling about, we aim to encourage single mothers to continue fighting for their children's futures and let their resilient spirit serve as an inspiration for everyone to find strength in a smile, even in the face of life's challenges.

Local / Cultural Context In Thai culture, there are over 13 different types of smiles. One of them is ‘Yimsu’ and it stands for the resilient smile, one that represents the fighting spirit of Thai people when they face challenges. It translates directly into ‘Smile Fight’ but more importantly, it embodies Colgate’s belief in the deeper meaning of a smile.

One that reflects the inner strength of a person who has the courage to remain optimistic in the face of adversity. “Yimsu” not only translates the Colgagte global brand platform ‘Smile Strong’ perfectly, but emotionally connects with all Thais by making the idea locally relevant and personally relatable, while naturally integrating the brand into Thai’s culture and becoming part of their everyday life.

Execution & Casting Colgate wanted to help change the perception towards single mothers by celebrating the incredible ‘Yimsu’ spirit that each of them possesses through a film based on their real-life story. To truly inspire people, our film relied on authenticity.

In order to find a real person to feature in our film, the conventional casting of actors would not be suitable. Instead, the agency team had to conduct extensive research online and on social media to find inspirational stories that highlighted the “Yimsu” spirit of single moms.

A shortlist of potential candidates were interviewed to dig deeper into each of their stories to discover insights that were not available and accessible to the public. The story of a single mom and a professional Thai boxer, Alisa “Tri” Yoohanngoh (Aka Moon Shadow) stood out and eventually became the inspiration of our film.

Additionally, to truly capture genuine emotions, the rest of the casts as well as the featured locations were kept as authentic as possible – from her father to her daughter, from every family member to the boxers she trained with, and from her home to her local training gym.

Film Synopsis Inside a stadium, two female Muay Thai fighters are exchanging punches in the middle of the boxing ring. Tri is suddenly knocked down. The referee starts the count for her to get back up.

Each count is paralleled to one of the setbacks that life threw at her, starting from the moment she discovered that she’s pregnant. As the count goes on, each setback also gets harder for her to overcome and increasingly more dramatic until she reaches a point where it seems so much easier to just give up.

Just before the count is over, she is awakened by the call of her daughter and sees her daughter’s smile. A ‘Yimsu’ smile that has the power to give her all the strength needed to rise up stronger. Tri’s smiles back and gets back on her feet after seeing flashbacks of a recollection of heartwarming moments she once shared with her daughter.

The film ends with a caption revealing that the plot was inspired by Tri’s real-life story. Impact / Results On a day when mothers from ideal, perfect families are celebrated, we made Mother’s Day celebrations more inclusive with our film, reaching 14 million people within just 24 hours and accumulating a total of over 57.6 million views and counting.

Generating 100% positive reactions, the film inspired thousands of people to share their appreciation and support on social media.

More than just a brand ambassador, Moon Shadow became a true ‘Yimsu’ advocate, being invited to speak as an inspiring figure on various TV channels.

The film sparked conversations supporting single moms in their everyday struggles while also inspiring female boxers not to give up on their dreams.

Increasing purchase intent by 33% (the highest record in Colgate marketing history) and achieved the highest brand equity score in the last 5 years.