Creative industry alliance the Central Office of Public Interest (COPI) is looking to galvanise the British public in a bid to put a permanent end to sewage dumping.
Developed by creative agency AMV BBDO, the ‘Smear Campaign’ will draw attention to the issue by using a hyper-realistic font made from excrement and other raw sewage products to call out the perpetrators.
With Environmental Agency figures showing that there were 3.6 million hours of raw sewage spills into England’s rivers and seas by water companies in 2023, the work highlights the urgent need for action.
By using live sewage dump data, COPI and AMV BBDO will project their message on iconic landmarks near sewage outlets, alongside live billboards outside parliament and in affected boroughs.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
“In a country where polls tell us that sewage dumping plays a big role in how people vote in the forthcoming election, we turn a complex issue into simple facts. Sometimes, if you want people to clean up their act, you’ve got to play dirty,” COPI founder, Humphrey Mills said.
The photo-realistic font represents the disgusting reality of sewage dumps, which not only include human bodily waste but have in recent years increasingly contained condoms and wet wipes.
The campaign’s messages also highlight how sewage dumps are negatively impacting the public’s daily lives, with statements such as: “Your dog is drinking this”, “Your MPs voted for this”, and “You’re swimming in this,”
AMV BBDO art director, Mario Kerkstra added: “We went to various waterways to collect raw sewage ourselves. We then used the set of items we found as references to create the font and its many components. It was important that, from an art directorial point of view, the many textures, shapes and colours looked as realistic as possible.”
