"What if we bottled dirty water?" UNICEF Dirty Water Campaign

I love guerilla advertising and experiential advertising as you may see from the other ad reviews in my blog- it is the part of advertising I may be most interested in. Pulling a stunt- shocking people- I really do believe that actions speak louder than words and I think this is especially true when we are bombarded with so much advertising everyday. How do we cut through the clutter? Why would we pay attention to one cause over another? In my eyes, the answer is: step up- play a new game - do something bold that will attract attention: Something that makes people, stop and think. To really have a profound impact, this is what good advertisements need. The key is to have an engaged viewer who will not easily forget what you have to say.

I think if living a privileged life (and by this I mean in this case- having access to clean water in our own house- a privilege many in the world do not have) we often shut out the problems we don't see in front of us. Yes we may see adverts campaigning to donate for clean water but these problems are so far removed from our daily lives that they are hard to understand or really visualise. 

This is why I think UNICEF's Dirty Water Campaign really successfully did everything to show us exactly what the problem is. They cleverly combined diseased dirty water with something so common in our lives: the vending machine. Already, simply using a vending machine enables us to relate to what is being presented to us. This campaign is big, bold and offers paser-bys to have a take home experience that they will not easily forget. 

I think this is not only a fantastic guerilla marketing campaign but also a fantastic way to compel people to take action straight away. Price is key here as well- if we think about the marketing mix- we should never forget price. Only $1 is so little that it pushes almost anyone to participate and donate. The transaction is so easy as well- people are familiar with this type of transaction- through a vending machine.

I think this ad was successful on two accounts- firstly it made people stop and really think and secondly it helped raise funds to combat this worldwide problem of shortage in clean drinking water. Fantastic campaign- I wish I had witnessed it first hand.

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