Ad-Driven Clean-Water Campaign Scales Back Efforts

A Madison Avenue-born water charity that was one of the first to promote the cause is scaling back its activities this year, reports The New York Times.

The Tap Project, the brainchild of the advertising-agency executive David Droga, started during World Water Week in March 2007 with a campaign that asked New York restaurant patrons to give $1 each time they ordered tap water. By last year the campaign, which has raised $1.5-million for Unicef clean-water programs, had grown to 19 cities and enlisted 21 creative firms to produce national and online ads. But this year’s effort involves just five cities and eight agencies.

With water charities proliferating, the Tap Project now faces stiffer competition for volunteers and pro bono services, the Times writes. Ryu Mizuno, marketing director for the United States Fund for Unicef, said the project is focused this year on “doing a few things in a great way instead of being all over the map” but has growth plans for 2011.

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