Tap Project Taps a Deep Emotional Well (Not Deep Pockets)

From an environmental/socially responsible marketing standpoint the Tap Project is a no brainer: when you eat out, you dole out the price of bottled water (or at least a buck) in exchange for a glass of normally free tap water. The restaurant then donates the dough to a UNICEF program that delivers clean drinking water to communities around the world where safe water is scarce. The program kicked off in NYC last year and garnered the support of some 300 restaurants.

From a design/brand standpoint, Tap delights with logos/identities unique to each of the 13 cities with participating restaurants this year. Some of the most respected names in advertising are contributing to the campaign (WK, Crispin). Here's a great spot from the Boston chapter that says all you need to know — about Tap, but also about producing great work that both defies green clichés and big budgets.

What I love about this spot is that it cost — or should have cost — next to nothing to make. With minimal visuals and maximal audio, it's positively Hitchcockian. Best of all, it stays true to the premise of the tap project: let's spend the money to get clean drinking water to those who need it, not to pay for a high-ticket film/video shoot.

Via Ernie Schenck, whose agency Hill Holliday produced the spot. Kudos, kids.