The Billboard That Makes Water
UTEC (University of Engineering and Technology)2013
The Billboard That Makes Water is a 2013 billboard (water-generating) for UTEC, created by Mayo DraftFCB, Lima.
Why it works
A university recruitment ad that proves its claim by working. Lima sits in a coastal desert where rain barely falls yet humidity runs close to 98 per cent, so Peru's University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) and Mayo DraftFCB built a billboard beside the Panamericana highway, south of the city, that condenses moisture from the air, purifies it and pipes drinking water to a tap at its base for local families. The headline simply described what the board was doing and called it ingenuity in action, with the date of the admissions test underneath. It is studied as a defining case of the ad as product demonstration: instead of telling teenagers that engineering changes lives, the university built the evidence and let them see it. The BBC reported more than 9,000 litres produced, around 96 a day; the agency's creative director told the Guardian that applications rose 38 per cent. In 2013 it won a Gold Outdoor Lion at Cannes and a One Show Silver Pencil.
Techniques
- Demonstration Instead of claiming that engineering changes lives, the university builds a billboard that turns humid air into drinking water and lets people see it work.
- Purpose and cause Water from the board is piped to a tap for local families in a desert city where rain barely falls.
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