This upcoming week will be World Water Week, from March 16th to the 22nd, and the Tap Project is where participating restaurants across the country will offer tap water to its patrons for $1 in benefit of UNICEF to provide children with safe drinking water. This was probably one of the best things to come out of 2007 and is really going far, having started in NYC and branching out to 30 cities in the U.S. this year.
When I first saw this last year I got goosebumps, the good kind of when you're happy to see something. I was happy to see this because whenever I go back home and trek out to the pueblos near the family farms, I run into many poor children who ask for food or drink. These kids live in "invasions," houses made from scrap material, on the outskirts of the pueblos or cities and don't have sewage, electricity or any of the amenities that we take for granted. Seeing an idea like this take off and take shape into one of the greatest efforts for UNICEF is very encouraging and shows you how "good" you could be in advertising.
The Tap Project brings social responsibility closer to the public and gives them a chance to spare a few dollars for something we get for free. Now if only they could keep this project running year round at restaurants, that would be great. (Tap Project could be included in your utilities.)
The Backstory
Last year, Droga5, an ad agency in NY, worked with UNICEF to promote World Water Day (March 22, 2007) and let the world know about the millions of children who don't have safe water to drink. This campaign got a lot of buzz going and won a lot of awards including a Titanium Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival last year, which is like the Academy Awards for advertising.
For more info and a list of participating restaurants visit Tap Project.
Client: Unicef
Agency: Droga5
2 comments:
Your parting thoughts here are quite ambitious--I particularly found the phrase "chance to spare" amusing and somewhat of an oxymoron.
It's also amusing, if you think about it, how obsessed the U.S. is with bottled water.
In my opinion, sure, it's generous what UNICEF is trying to do here. Yet, at the same time why would a company put itself into the position to be typecast as the "big, corporate business pretending to help the less fortunate while back-handedly encouraging overuse of not only an already overused commercial product, but one that certainly isn't green by any stretch of the imagination"?
Every coin has two sides, but not every plastic bottle is ever completely recycled...
For more on how this campaign was developed: http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=127040§ionId=the_creativity_awards
Here you'll find an interview with David Droga, the advertising guru who created the campaign.
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