Dumb and Dumber

For some time I have been amused by a campaign by the Denver Water Board to encourage conservation of water.

Back when we were in a drought, there were restrictions on when and how long you could water the grass, plants, etc. The people of Denver responded, water usage was less and the reward was higher water rates. We cut back and then Denver Water decided they would raise the rates to compensate for less revenue. Thanks a lot!

The campaign I referred to is called Use Only What You Need. As you can see from the pictures, the clever idea is to use only part of a billboard, bus bench or bus ad. The message is that all of the space isn’t necessary to get their message across.

Here is what is dumb about the whole campaign. Do you think because they only used a portion of the available space that they only had to pay for part of the media used? Of course not. You pay for the whole thing even if you only use part.

Now we see that the same principle applied to rewarding conservation with a raise in rates.

Use only what you need but pay as if you used it all.

Philip