WaterAid - Ode

Giving Water Its Flowers

It is hard to comprehend just how many people around the world still do not have access to safe drinking water.

Roughly one in four.

More people have Instagram.

Seriously. What are we doing?

WaterAid is the leading charity working to change this. And in the run-up to Christmas, they were looking to drive donations.

Unfortunately, so was every other charity.

Compared with other causes, the water crisis can also feel strangely invisible. Especially in the UK during wintertime, when water is generally bucketing from the sky and ruining your plans.

It is everywhere. Which makes it very easy to ignore.

We wanted people to notice it again. To recognise how extraordinary it is. And how absurdly lucky we are to take it completely for granted.

But not in a guilt-trippy way.

People have become very good at blocking out depressing news. Understandably, really. There is quite a lot of it.

So we thought joy might have more cut-through. Instead of bombarding people with bleak images of communities living without water, we celebrated a world full of it.

The result was a joyful tribute to water in all its weird and wonderful forms.

Rainbows and sprinklers. Waterslides, puddles and snowball fights. That tiny moment when a dog sees the sea and briefly loses its mind.

All the small moments that remind us just how remarkable and versatile this essential resource really is.

But let’s not forget, this was still a charity campaign.

To bring the idea to life, we teamed up with an eclectic mix of animators and filmmakers from around the world. Each brought their own distinctive style, helping us create a multimedia spectacle full of energy, imagination and optimism.

To hold it all together, we brought in beloved actor and celebrity Traitor Mark Bonnar, whose voice has the rare ability to sound playful and important at exactly the same time.

By celebrating everything water gives us, we made the reality of living without it feel even starker.

All without a depressing image in sight.