Unilever is using its Domestos brand to help raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis.

The brand has marked World Toilet Day (today) by erecting an interactive statue called The Public Toilet next to London’s Tower Bridge. People can upload a short video of their face via www.thepublictoilet.com, which will be broadcast on to the statue to highlight the fact that about 1.1 billion people across the world do not have toilet facilities.

Domestos has also worked with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to produce the white paper Toilets for Health, which flags up how improved sanitation could greatly reduce diseases such as diarrhoea, which kills at least 1.1 million children under five every year.

And in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the first Domestos Toilet Academy was opened today to provide local entrepreneurs with the business skills and training necessary to source and supply latrines to their local communities.

“By consolidating the knowledge available about improvements that can be made to people’s lives by the simple provision of a clean, safe toilet, real action can be driven to help address this crisis,” said Sean Gogarty, Unilever senior vice president for household care. “Domestos has been committed to helping protect families from germs for more than 80 years and is uniquely positioned to address the sanitation crisis.

Domestos was the first ever sponsor of World Toilet Day, and has worked with the World Toilet Organization since 2009. World Toilet Day activity is being promoted on Twitter with the hashtags #IGiveAShit and #WTD2012.