A bottle cap that turns well water into drinking water / FILSA COLOMBIA "FILTER CAPS"

The problem

In Colombia, around 4 million people, mostly in dry regions, lack access to safe drinking water. In isolated areas like La Guajira and El Chocó in particular, news of child malnutrition was a daily occurrence.

The insight

Plenty of companies "sell" water, but none had turned the function of "filtering" itself into a product. What Ogilvy and FILSA focused on was the idea of turning the plastic bottle — the most widespread piece of infrastructure there is — directly into a filtering device. It's precisely in remote areas that NGO and government support can't reach that a lightweight, unbreakable solution is needed.

The idea

They developed a cap made of multiple layers of metal, minerals, and natural materials, 3D-printed using cornstarch-derived resin. Simply attach it upside down to a bottle filled with river or well water, and filtering and mineralization happen automatically. Each cap costs under 6 dollars and can filter 5 liters of water a day, and it's made of biodegradable material that returns to the soil after use. With cooperation from the Red Cross and Baylor International, 1,000 caps were first distributed to remote communities.

What happened

At the 2024 Cannes Lions, it won multiple awards, including Gold in Sustainable Development Goals and Bronze in Brand Experience and Activation. In its first year, it reached more than 10,000 people across Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, and is expected to filter 1.8 million liters of water per year.

Afterthought

Advertising work is often thought of as "communicating" through words or images, but this changed the water itself. It's rare for a single cap to stand at the line between life and death. I hope we see more work like this.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Gold 2024

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