The well of inspiration apparently never runs dry for Denver Water's long-running "Use Only What You Need" campaign. And while Sukle Advertising's lauded conservation initiative often features eye-catching public installations, this year's installment is brimming with artistry.
The agency used diverse materials such as colored pencils, Post-it notes, clay, crushed soda cans, Legos, yarn and string to create 10 original piece of art. Each depicts water in various forms, such as drops, splashes, cascades, showers and spray. The work adorns bus shelters around Denver, as well as print and online ads. The headline, "You can't make this stuff," drives home the message that water is a non-renewable resource.
Most of the results are quite splashy. For example...
I'd love to see this "fluffy" Lego cloud hovering over my block:
These pencil-tipped waves make a good point:
Someone should put a cap on this knitted-yarn faucet:
Here's a fresh take on string theory:
This Post-it note poster is good to the last, well, you know:
"Consumers often see conservation as a sacrifice, something they have to give up, which they often aren't willing to do," says agency founder and creative director Mike Sukle. "We have, instead, used the approach of 'not wasting.' Consumers see waste differently than conservation, so the messaging of 'Use Only What You Need' follows the mind of the consumer that wasting is wrong."
Water use in Denver recently hit a record low, so it appears the campaign, now in its ninth year, is having an impact. Alas, a local Lego shortage looms large, as Sukle reports using 6,000 of the colorful plastic bricks for the new ads.
Check out more executions below.