A billboard along Denver’s Sixth Avenue recently caused Logan Daws to do a double-take.
The words “watering hole” were printed in big, black ink across a white background, but “watering” was struck out with a thick, orange line.
“Just ‘hole’?” Daws said in a phone interview. “Who was advertising ‘hole’ in Denver, Colorado?”
The answer: .
The utility’s marketing campaign includes 22 billboards and 21 bus shelter advertisements showcasing common water-related words and phrases (“water boy,” “snow,” “wet T-shirt,” “watering hole,” “pool party”), but crossing out the liquid element.
That means some billboards just say “boy” instead of “water boy” — or “snow” with the “s” and “w” crossed out.
“The messaging was about driving home the point (that) the water is missing,” said Stacy Chesney, Denver Water’s public affairs director. “It didn’t come in the form of snow or rain this past spring and most of summer. Those reservoirs are what carry us through drought, and they didn’t fill.”
The marketing campaign, which cost around $686,000 and was led by Denver-based , is creating ripples across social media as people giggle, scratch their heads and admit the idea might actually be genius if it’s garnering so much attention.
“It’s simultaneously the best and worst campaign I’ve seen because people are talking about it,” Daws said. “But itap also, like, it took me a long time to figure out and connect the dots — and maybe that’s my own stupidity — but how many people are driving by and are like, ‘OK, hole. All right, sure.'”
Daws saw a post poking fun at the campaign on X, prompting him to make a TikTok about the billboard in his city.
“Boy and hole?” Daws said in the TikTok, adding that he couldn’t see the Denver Water logo in the corner of the billboard. “What are they advertising? What are they up to?”
Daws’ TikTok racked up thousands of views and generated nearly 400 comments from users agreeing or educating him about the Denver Water campaign.
“We love it,” Chesney said. “Water may sound like a boring topic, but we love being a utility with a bit of a personality. We do want people to pause and think about their water use and make a connection between the snow didn’t show this year, we are still in drought and everybody can take steps to reduce water use… It gets them to pause and think, talk, come to our website, take a look at resources on how to save water indoors and outdoors.”
Denver Water is trying to educate as many folks as they can amid the warmest summer on record for metro Denver.
Denver Water’s reservoir system is only 73% full at a time when it is normally 94% full, according to the utility. That percentage may drop to only 60% full before next spring’s runoff, according to Denver Water staff.
New drought restrictions mean Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers must shut off their lawn sprinklers at the start of October as the state’s largest water utility grapples with record-setting heat and lack of precipitation.
As Denver faces a drought declaration it hasn’t seen in more than a decade, the city is hoping to reduce water use by 20%, the utility said.
In the early 2000s, during another time of historic drought in Denver, the utility turned to Sukle for a campaign to encourage people to reduce water usage. That campaign, “Use Only What You Need,” was considered an . By the time the campaign came to a close in 2015, Denver Water customers’ water usage had dropped 22% compared to usage before the drought, the utility said.
Rose Bythrow lives near the “watering hole” billboard and can’t help but chuckle every time she passes. She saw the campaign making the social media rounds and joined in the revelry in the comment section.
“I was a little bit confused, and then I saw other iterations of the billboard and advertisements in the mail, and I thought it was honestly so funny,” Bythrow said in a phone interview. “I work in marketing… the point of advertising is to catch people’s attention, and it does that, so I hope that their marketing team is in on the joke. Honestly, I like the campaign… I don’t know if it’s bringing more attention to the fact that we need to use less water or just the fact that Denver Water made a funny marketing campaign.”
Any exposure to the issue is good, said Mike Sukle, owner of Sukle Advertising & Design. He appreciates that the campaign is causing waves.
“I think about how utilities communicate with people. They don’t do it like Denver Water,” Sukle said. “Denver Water has always had a little bit of humor. If they can go out and make people notice their message, people are going to do it… We track sentiment online, and itap been very positive for the ‘Use Only What You Need’ campaign. People are engaging with it. Itap fun. We’re not out there trying to scare people or say you have to do this or that. We’re asking for help.”
