The Denver metro area and much of Colorado was heading into a drought of epic proportions. With an extremely small budget a campaign was created using people wearing sandwich boards as its primary media. Within hours of the launch every major news outlet in the state was reporting on the campaign. Within a week the campaign was reported on in the New York Times and became national news.

June 12, 2002. The country was at war in Afghanistan. The financial markets has just dropped by 60%. In response to wildfires, the Governor of Colorado went on television and declared the entire state was burning. And Denver Water had just declared a stage 2 drought. With a mere $75,000 and just weeks to make 1.1 million people aware of the drought and watering restrictions, a quirky, humorous campaign was created using men in sandwich boards to deliver the important message.

Everything in the world seemed to be going wrong. Clients from all types of industries were declaring that in these serious times, serious messages were needed. That was all but one client, Denver Water. They believed that a dose of humor and an innovative low budget approach just might work to capture peoples attention and imagination. The light-hearted campaign “It’s a drought. Do something” was created.

The campaign generated over 103 million impressions at a cost of .0011 cent per impression. Over $20,000 in media space was donated to the cause.