Solidarité from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

You may have already seen this clever use of outdoor by French agency BDDP & Fils. While the execution is exceptional the vision by the agency and client is more so.

The not-for-profit sector is densely populated by organisations and agencies not willing to take a risk with their campaigns and try something new. The modest return through tried and true methods is always smiled upon.

Solidarites International are to be commended for running with an idea that captured the imagination and used simple copy to maximum affect. What else would have worked with the campaign I wonder?

A supporting outdoor element could have been drink vending machines by a water retailer do drive home the message. Visibly tainted bottles of water could have been displayed alongside regular product to demonstrate the scale of the problem for so many people. The vending machines could both sell water and take donations for the client by mobile phone or credit card. A courageous use of this idea would see purchasers try their luck with receiving a clean bottle of water and when a dirty bottle was received the money becomes a donation to the client.

If the campaign was run in Melbourne a great PR opportunity would be to make use of the Yarra river. To use outdoor once again, coffins could be floated down a section of the river to show how many people unsafe water kills every minute or hour. With permission, you could even colour the river to show how much water is tainted in various parts of the world.

With the market suffering from compassion fatigue a challenging and thought-provoking solution is needed to achieve results in such campaigns.