The drought of 2012, which continues to spread westward, is making its mark on the national consciousness in many ways. Rising food prices. Interrupted livelihoods. Fields of stunted, desiccated crops.
All of this dryness has resonance in our video culture. Just go to YouTube and look at the proliferation of public service announcements on water conservation. Making one of these seems to be the school project du jour. But in this array there are some standouts, like Oklahoma City’s recent offering, above, or this one from students at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Often, contributions to the art form show someone cavalierly overusing water in the sink or shower and are supplemented by statistics about the amount of water wasted every year. One variant features water wardens — like the “Saturday Night Live” comedians Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch — dropping in on the bathrooms and kitchens of unsuspecting water spendthrifts.
Cute toddlers are enlisted for a French offering and another from Malaysia. Others incorporate music — pitting Pachelbel’s Canon (a stately tone, amid water waste) against “I Don’t Want to Lose Your Love Tonight” (an upbeat tone, for greener water habits).
The water skits on “Sesame Street” include a video in which an animated fish’s pond is drained as a little boy runs the tap while brushing his teeth. Then there’s the sadistic approach, in which profligate users face retaliation from a garden hose and a miniature poodle.
School competitions to develop these public service announcements are common in the United States and in places like Singapore, where water scarcity has led to a national program for recycling water. Competitors tend to cast toothbrushes and faucets in leading roles. Toilets can be harder to work with tastefully, but it’s not impossible (see here and here).
Some entries have the cadence of biblical commandments (“I should not take more than five minutes to shower”). But given that they were produced by primary schools, they might be excused for being a bit didactic. A few Australian offerings are a little more free-form.
Then there’s this production from the guys at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who seized on an instantly recognizable cultural meme and ran with it. They should enter this in some contest.