This grossout ‘Smear Campaign’ resonates with UK public

Every day, millions of litres of raw sewage is dumped in UK waters. Recent figures from the Environmental Agency reveal that in 2023 alone, water companies were responsible for 3.6 million hours of raw sewage spills into England’s rivers and seas—double the amount from 2022.

While ecosystems collapse and our shared natural assets vanish, water companies continue to pay themselves and their shareholders huge salaries and dividends. Despite this environmental crisis, the UK government was endorsing targets that permit sewage dumping to persist for at least another 15 years.

In the UK, there's a significant engagement gap when it comes to sewage dumping. While media coverage has raised awareness of the issue, public engagement remains frustratingly low. Media coverage often highlights the sheer volume of sewage dumped, whilst water companies often obscure reality with complex data and spreadsheets, making the issue hard for the average person to understand. This leaves the British public feeling overwhelmed and powerless to drive meaningful change.

How could we use craft, the tools and talents at our disposal to cut through the complacency and reveal the issue for what it truly is - disturbingly prevalent, revolting and local? Awareness alone isn't enough, our objective was to create communications so viscerally shocking that it drove action and turned knowledge of the issue into pressure for change.

The Smear Campaign from COPI visualised the stark truth behind the data leveraging disgust to shatter passivity and ignite action.

Approach

Data on sewage dumps in the UK is sporadically reported and difficult to understand, so The Smear Campaign used typography as a tool to weaponize meaningless numbers and make a hidden truth sickeningly real.

We personally collected human waste from our polluted waters and turned it into 26 rancid letters of protest.

The base of the type is crafted from human excrement. We then layered in congealed fat and foam, decaying organic matter, used toilet paper, discarded condoms, dirty plasters, maggots and flies. Excrement smears and puddles were added as photographic background elements, to convey the idea of the type being freshly scooped out of the water.

Live spill data powered our campaign messaging, so when they dumped, we called it out with disgusting posters, projections, placards and social that highlighted where and when the spills were occurring in real-time.

Everything led to a site that called out the politicians who voted for dumping to continue and rallied support behind our petition building pressure for them to ban it for good.

Results

We demonstrated conclusively that disgust can be a potent catalyst for political change. Our campaign leveraged this emotion to dramatic effect, generating an astonishing £28 million in earned media value, a testament to the broad reach and impact of our efforts. Furthermore, 74% of our online audience reported feeling disgusted by what they saw, a clear indication of the campaign's emotional resonance.

Our targeted strategy not only made headlines but was also featured prominently on primetime ITV news, gaining additional exposure in prominent publications such as The Times and The Daily Mail. This widespread media coverage helped amplify our message, turning previously overlooked sewage data into a national conversation piece centering around the famous Boat Race.

By graphically illustrating the horrors of sewage pollution with shocking visuals, we successfully turned the stomachs of a nation. We didn't just report the facts—we made them impossible to ignore, provoking a visceral reaction that spurred viewers into action.

The impact was tangible: our petition garnered 89,000 signatures and counting, demonstrating the public's demand for immediate change and intensifying pressure on politicians to take a stance. National outrage meant sewage dumping was a key talking point in the recent election and a landmark ruling by the UK Supreme Court in July 2024 means that water companies can now be sued for sewage pollution by private citizens.

Ultimately, our campaign underlined a crucial lesson: sometimes, to prompt people to clean up their act, playing dirty is not only effective but necessary.

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