How often do we buy bottled water when drinking tap water is perfectly healthy? Considering the bottled water industry has an estimated value of $1.8 billion, it's safe to say, quite a lot.

On one day in March, New York agency Droga5, along with UNICEF, aimed to change the perception of tap water as being inferior to bottled with the Tap Project. On March 22, which is UNICEF World Water Day, over 300 of New York's top restaurants offered its patrons the option to drink New York tap for a cost of $1 per person. All proceeds were donated to help eradicate the clean water shortages around the world.

Andrew Essex, CEO of Droga5, says the idea came on the heels of a challenge from Esquire. The men's magazine included

David Droga in their December 2006 Genius issue. The magazine then challenged him to prove his genius by creating a brand out of nothing and the Tap Project was born.

"It happened to be the week that India ran out of water," says Essex. "We were sitting around a restaurant where you can buy a $47 piece of chicken, drinking this fantastic tap water, that everyone takes for granted, for free. Then Dave suggested turning tap water into a brand."

Print ads for NY Tap, which ran in Esquire, turn a prosaic, clear bottle of water with a blue wax seal into something covetable when photographed on a clean white background, reminiscent of Absolut's iconic advertising. "If you just put a brand on this commodity, it gives it much more psychographic oomph," offers Essex.

The campaign also includes additional print executions featuring essays on water from 10 top authors, including Douglas Coupland, Nathan Englander and Susan Choi, as well as Times Square ads running on two Reuters screens, phone booth ads, a viral campaign and a website created by the Barbarian Group. The project will roll out to other international cities with clean and plentiful water next year, such as Sydney, Toronto, London, Paris and Chicago, with the help of local advertising agencies.

While all parties involved provided their services on a pro bono basis, Essex says Droga5's intentions with the loss-leading Tap Project are twofold. "There's a slightly execrable phrase that's going around now: philanthropy for profit. We're in the profit business and we have no illusions about that, but we also have a conscience. We believe brands should have commerce with a conscience," he says.

"We believe this will ultimately produce revenue for us," he continues, noting that the project is now owned by UNICEF, but that Droga5 will be involved on an advisory basis in perpetuity and will be credited with its creation. "This is an amazing case study as an example of pure ideation. As banal as it sounds, it shows how an idea can literally change the world."

Droga5 http://www.droga5.com
The Tap Project http://www.tapproject.org