Whirlpool: Care Counts

Millions of U.S. children are less likely to graduate due to chronic absenteeism. Our integrated team discovered a startling reason why: 1 in 5 children struggle to get access to clean clothes — and schoolchildren wearing dirty clothes often report being bullied and stigmatized. So Ketchum and DigitasLBi launched Care Counts and installed Whirlpool washers and dryers in pilot schools. This simple act of increasing children’s access to clean clothes improved attendance among 90 percent of the at-risk students tracked. This campaign generated 378 million earned media impressions in two months, and interest from thousands more schools, leading to a roll-out of Care Counts across America in 2017-18.