Baby Shark lends a fin to combat COVID-19

PAHO News – Pinkfong and PAHO join forces in a new campaign featuring Baby Shark to promote handwashing for young children and help prevent the new coronavirus in the Americas.

SmartStudy, the global entertainment company behind the beloved children’s brand, Pinkfong, is joining the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on a new public campaign to encourage small children and their parents to protect themselves and others from COVID-19 by washing their hands often. Handwashing remains one of the most effective public health measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, along with social distancing and mask-wearing.

Wash Your Hands with Baby Shark, a Pinkfong global campaign created by SmartStudy, has attracted more than 39.3 million viewers worldwide on YouTube and generated more than 190k cover videos since its launch in March of last year. Its objective was to promote safe hand hygiene among kids in a fun way while encouraging them to wash their hands in the context of the global pandemic.

Now it will be customized to address audiences throughout the Americas in support of PAHO’s ongoing public health efforts to stop the COVID-19 spread. The campaign will significantly help expand PAHO’s reach to children in its Member Countries.

The public video PSAs will be broadcast in English, Portuguese and Spanish through PAHO’S YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media channels, as well as in TV stations from Canada to Argentina beginning February 1st.

Pinkfong’s Baby Shark Dance is YouTube’s most watched video in history with 7.8 billion views and a 17-week streak on Billboard’s Hot 100 as a Top 50 hit.

SmartStudy is a global entertainment company focused on developing and creating animated content for kids through its brand, Pinkfong, to generate fun learning experiences for children around the globe. With 72 million subscribers and 39 billion views across the globe, Pinkfong’s YouTube channel is one of the most influential channels for kids on digital media.

PAHO/WHO is an international public health organization with 118 years of experience working to improve health and living standards of the countries of the Americas. It is recognized as the specialized organization for health of the Inter-American System and also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization.