SunSlide

Read the campaign story

Applying sunscreen can interrupt the activity a child wants to keep doing. NIVEA SunSlide turned that interruption into the attraction itself: a custom slip-and-slide with sprayers dispensing sunscreen. FCB Cape Town's 2016 activation placed the product inside a playful beach experience. The idea was easy to explain visually, but its marketing ingenuity should be separated from any claim that sliding through the installation guaranteed complete or lasting sun protection.

The agency's May 2016 account describes a Cape Town execution, sunscreen-dispensing jets and goggles supplied to participants. Contemporary cosmetics coverage also describes the installation as a promotional activation. The published accounts do not provide independent testing of coverage, dosage or protection after sliding. The case therefore records what was built and promoted, not a validated replacement for following sunscreen instructions. It also acknowledges that the team explicitly drew inspiration from the earlier Brazilian NIVEA Doll project.

The mechanism differs from that earlier educational toy. The doll visualised the consequence of missing protection; SunSlide attempted to combine the desired action with something enjoyable. This is a friction-removal idea: instead of persuading someone to stop playing for a necessary task, redesign the task so it belongs to play. The resulting spectacle also creates an easily filmed demonstration, which can communicate the brand's intention to people who never attend the activation.

A small team should borrow that behavioural structure only in a low-risk setting. A library could make returning books part of a playful sorting station, or a shop could turn packaging reuse into a satisfying collection ritual. Start by identifying the precise moment people avoid, then see whether a more enjoyable interaction can preserve the task's quality. The activity should remain optional and accessible to people who cannot or do not want to take part in the game.

The caution is that enjoyment can conceal incomplete performance. A fun return station still has to return the right item; a recycling game still has to sort correctly. In the original context, medical and product-use claims demand far more than a lively case film. The transferable lesson is not to improvise sunscreen application. It is to test whether a redesigned interaction can make an ordinary task more appealing without reducing its accuracy, safety or dignity.

Identify the avoided moment

Find the specific friction rather than assuming people need more persuasion.

Preserve task quality

Check that the enjoyable version still performs the underlying job correctly.

Offer an accessible alternative

Do not make a game the only route to completing the task.

A small test for another brief

Make a non-safety routine task enjoyable without changing its requirements.

Correct completions, voluntary repeat use and accessibility feedback.

Stop if play reduces accuracy or creates physical or health risk.

• Select a task such as sorting reusable packaging.
• Prototype a playful station with a plain accessible alternative.
• Check task accuracy before measuring enjoyment.