WaterAid, an international not-for-profit organization, and London-based independent creative agency Don’t Panic teamed on this campaign centerpiece film, “First Cup,” shot in Zomba, Malawi, and directed by Anonymous Content’s Elena Petitti di Roreto with cultural direction from WaterAid’s Dennis Lupenga. Unusual in its approach, “First Cup” begins at the end. It tells the story of a village where the local community celebrates the newly completed borehole installed in partnership with WaterAid. Unlike many campaigns for the third sector, instead of showcasing the need, WaterAid and Don’t Panic chose to highlight the impact.
With funding from the Scottish Government International Development fund, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water employee fundraising, WaterAid reached this community with clean water in 2019. “First Cup” was inspired by the experiences and insight of community members in this project.
Screened across U.K. cinemas, TV and social, “First Cup” follows Lucia, a Malawian. As the chief of her community announces that they now have reliable access to clean water, for the first time , the crowd begins to celebrate, but Lucia quietly stands, her eyes focused on the metal cup, holding the ‘first cup’ of clean water. When the moment is right, she runs to the water pump, grabbing the cup as she passes. Safe from the gaze of the community, Lucia looks at the clean water–the first time she’s seen it, in her life. Rather than taking a sip, we see her carefully run through the countryside, past football players, dodging a moped in her town, across a rickety bridge to her grandmother, where she hands her the first cup; a woman who has spent her life without clean water so that she can be the first to drink it.
Rick Dodds, creative partner, Don’t Panic, said, “It’s hard, and not particularly just, to sit in a London office and write a script about a community you’ve never visited or talked to. As soon as we knew we would be working on this campaign, we decided to take a different approach. Ellie Moore (strategy partner) and I visited Zomba, Malawi, and met the communities there. We spent time hearing about their lives and getting to know them. This immersion influenced our ideas; a couple of months later with Anonymous Content’s Elena Petitti di Roreto, we filmed the script with the same communities of Zomba, Malawi.”
