WATER IS LIFE | BUCKET LIST | 2014
A World Where a 4-Year-Old Needs a Bucket List / WATERisLIFE "BUCKET LIST"
When you hear "bucket list," you probably think of things you want to do before you die—a luxury that assumes you'll live a long life. But in sub-Saharan Africa, one in five children doesn't live to see their fifth birthday. There really is a world where a four-year-old needs a bucket list.
The problem
Much of the cause comes down to a lack of safe water. DDB New York and the charity WATERisLIFE turned this statistic into the story of one child: a four-year-old Maasai boy named Nkaitole, living deep in rural Kenya.
The insight
DDB's CCO Matt Eastwood said the idea was to "give a face to millions of children." The thinking was simple: turn the numbers back into a human face.
The idea
Nkaitole, who had never left his village, was filmed being taken to do things he'd never done before—like seeing the ocean, or visiting places he'd never known existed. The direction is quiet, letting the boy's expressions do all the talking. It ran under the hashtag #5YearsToLive, alongside videos of American children sharing their own bucket lists.
What happened
This was DDB and WATERisLIFE's second project together, following the previous year's "Hashtag Killer." Since the partnership began, donations have increased by more than 500%. The campaign won Gold.
Afterthought
That single line—"a four-year-old has a bucket list"—already says everything. It speaks through a face, not statistics. Borrowing one familiar phrase from the movies makes a heavy subject easier to approach. That sense of balance is what makes it work so well. I'm grateful for water, too.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2014
