The First Billboard in the World to Make Drinking Water out of Thin Air

What would a great ad for a university of technology be? An ad, that itself, solves a problem through technology. This is exactly what the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru and their ad agency Mayo DraftFCB have done – the first billboard in the world to make drinking water out of thin air and alleviate the lives of Peru’s people.

Trying to inspire young people to pursue careers in engineering, the university and ad teams decided to show how technology can be used to solve local problems. One such problem in Lima is the lack of running water. Due to the extremely dry climate with an annual precipitation of less than 1 inch, most people draw water from wells that are often polluted. On the other hand, the atmospheric humidity in Lima approximates 98%. Keeping the needs of their community in mind, and using the context to their advantage, the two teams combined creativity and know how to come up with the first billboard in the world that produces drinking water out of air.

The billboard works through a reverse osmosis system, capturing the air humidity, condensing and purifying the water, and filling it up in 20 lt. tanks. In 3 months the billboard has produced 9450 lt., making hundreds of familes happy and eager to see similar systems in other towns.

Now that’s great advertising!

photo: Mayo DraftFCB/UTEC