This is a transcript of the video PeachpitTV: David Berman discusses the PlayPump
(Text on screen: Voices that matter Conference Web Design
Do Good Design author David Berman discusses the Play Pump)
(Image of Do Good Design book cover. David Berman appears on screen and faces the camera for the duration of this video. David is wearing a beige suit with a white shirt.)
[MUSIC PLAYING] There’s lots of examples of designers coming up with very creative ways to do good in the world. One of my favorites is Trevor Field. He’s an advertising executive.And he was traveling in Africa and he noticed how children would play on merry-go-rounds. And at the same time, he’s in areas of the continent where there was a shortage of drinkable water. And there’s a problem with getting power in to pump water out from the deep.
They knew where the water was. But the power grid wasn’t available to pump the water out. He came up with this very clever idea. Why not use the child power of playing on the merry-go-round to pump the water out.
And he created something called the PlayPump. And now today, there’s about over 1,000 PlayPumps in various countries in the southern end of Africa, where children play on the merry-go-round and it pumps water to the surface.
Trevor, being an advertising executive, actually thought of this in terms of a sustainable business model because he decided that the entire PlayPump contraption could actually have four billboard faces on it, so he could sell space on the PlayPump to whomever chose to sponsor it. And of course, that corporation could associate themselves with doing good.
[MUSIC PLAYING](Text on screen: DavidBerman.com/dogood
Presented by New Riders
Gary-Paul Prince – Producer and Editor
Mary Sweeney – Camera and Lighting
RhedPixel.com – Motion Graphics
Find out more at www.peachpit.com)
Reviewed October 14, 2014