Black Boy Wanting Water
Studio Brussels
Issue 8 | September 2008
Agency
Mortierbrigade Brussels
Creative Team
Jens Mortier, Joost Berends, Philippe Deceuster - Creative Directors;Tim Driesen – Copywriter / Art Director;Joeri Vandenbroeck – Copywriter / Art Director;Dieter Vanhoof – Copywriter / Art Director
Other Credits
Peter Claes - Head of Marketing
Date
December 2007
Background
The yearly charity event 'Music for Life', organised by radio station Studio Brussels on behalf of the Red Cross, is dedicated to the issue of drinking water in Africa. Every 15 seconds a child dies due to lack of clean drinking water. Studio Brussels wanted to raise awareness of the problem and funds to help.
Idea
Mortierbrigade started from the insight that every TV host always has a glass of water on their desk. It's so normal, nobody even notices anymore. They created a guerrilla campaign in which a black boy kept running onto prime time TV shows on Flanders' best watched station 'één' over the course of three days. He quickly drank the host's glass of water and then ran off. The event came as a surprise to hosts and audience alike, provoking the frequently asked question: 'have you seen the thirsty black boy?' The whole thing started to lead a life of its own on the internet and in other media. Eventually, Mortierbrigade explained who was behind the campaign, creating a TV spot out of the edited footage and asking people to donate to the cause.
Results
Music for Life turned out to be a giant success. In six days, people donated 3.3 million euros – an impressive figure for such a small country.
Our Thoughts
Is this an awareness campaign? A direct campaign? A brilliant media idea? Yes, yes, yes. Plenty of people have tried to ‘invade’ TV programming before but never with such purpose. It will have cost remarkably little to help raise the €3m it did.