Xylem and Pep Guardiola Unite with Urgent Wake-up Call to Escalating Wastewater Issues

An estimated 80% of wastewater enters the environment untreated. This mismanagement of toxic chemicals, human and medical waste is putting people and the environment at risk. 

With considerable media coverage on water pollution recently, Xylem’s campaign, developed by Brave, aims to garner support to Take the Waste out of Water.

Building on their relationship with Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola, Xylem’s film, and accompanying social/digital media assets, seeks to support the UN’s resolution to halve the amount of untreated wastewater we release by 2030. But they can’t do it alone.

The campaign aims to draw attention and create urgency for the audience to stand with Xylem and take collective action ahead of the UN World Water Conference. 

To do this, Xylem has developed a bespoke online hub, which the public can use to register their support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and take steps to ensure global wastewater issues remain a topic of conversation in relevant markets. 

In addition to drawing attention, the campaign needs to deliver a shift in public sentiment towards taking urgent action to protect water. To support this, we created a thought-provoking campaign featuring Xylem ambassador, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City star players. 

There is an embedded human truth at the heart of the activity. That is, many of us are guilty of watching global wastewater issues hit our screens daily, yet most of us don’t act on it. Our idea was to address our audience’s current inertia head on with a direct plea from Pep.

The main film, directed by Courage’s Peter King, sees Pep delivering a wake-up call as he addresses the waste issues that directly affect us all, questioning how close will pollution have to get before we do something about it. Does wastewater have to be at your doorstep and even flooding your home, before we act?

The film ends with a message of hope; prompting the audience to stop watching pollution on their screens and start using them for good, with a simple click to show support that can help drive change for water at the UN conference.

Randolf Waters, senior director of global partnerships & branding at Xylem commented “To get cut-through with the audience, we need a provocative message to capture attention, a clear call to action to make it tangible, and a platform to nurture their awareness and action over time. The campaign aims to deliver across all of this. We all need to take action on this issue, today.” 

Annie Fox, creative director at Brave commented “It can be overwhelming to know how to solve problems like water pollution. We wanted to move viewers with a visually striking and emotionally charged message that would make them take notice. By showing wastewater destroying a loved home it brings a searching question for the viewer – how close does water pollution have to get before you’ll act? Then showing change can happen with a simple click.”