Sanitation is Sexy.
Make it obvious.

Due November 21, 2010

Challenge PDF

The Challenge

Use your creative genius to show the world that the lack of basic sanitation is one of the most critical issues facing the developing world today.

You can meet the challenge with:

  • The most retweetable tweet of all time
  • A story or essay that is New Yorker-worthy, bound to become a classic
  • An iconic print ad or poster
  • Guerrilla marketing or public art that commands immediate twitpic and yfrog-ing action
  • A game-changing video à la The Girl Effect which puts sanitation on the map
  • THE UNEXPECTED. YOU DECIDE...GO CRAZY!

The deadline for submissions is November 21st at 11:59pm Pacific.

To submit, simply email your name and all links to images, videos, text, or the unexpected to:

EXTRA POINTS AWARDED TO SUBMISSIONS THAT ARE LIVE ON THE WEB (flickr / YouTube / twitter / wherever) + EXTRA EXTRA POINTS FOR COMMENTS, RETWEETS, VIEWS, LIKES, AND FAVORITES OF YOUR SUBMISSION ON THE LIVE WEB.

PLEASE SEE TERMS & CONDITIONS

Judging & Recognition

The deadline for submissions is November 21st at 11:59pm Pacific. The esteemed panel of judges will choose their favorites by November 30, 2010 and the winning submissions will be featured by our Challenge Sponsor, Design Observer, and Media Partners, GOOD and YouTube, in early December. Winning video submissions will be featured on YouTube's homepage for 24 hours.

All video contestants are encouraged to enter TED's Ads Worth Spreading video challenge with a chance to be premiered at the 2011 TED Conference and on TED.com for one week, guaranteeing millions of impressions.

These folks will judge you

William Drenttel (bio)

Editorial Director of Design Observer

William Drenttel

Editorial Director of Design Observer

William Drenttel is the editorial director of the Design Observer Group, a leading site covering design, social innovation, urbanism and cultural observation. He is leading numerous social innovation projects funded by Rockefeller Foundation. He tweets at @designobserver.

Steven Johnson (bio)

Writer

Steven Johnson

Writer

Steven Johnson is the bestselling author of Interface Culture, Emergence, Everything Bad Is Good for You, and The Ghost Map, as well as a columnist for Discover and a contributing editor at Wired. His latest book is Where Good Ideas Come From. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, and can be reached via at www.stevenberlinjohnson.com.

David Kuria (bio)

Founder and CEO of Ecotact

David Kuria

Founder and CEO of Ecotact

David Kuria is a Nairobi-based architect and entrepreneur. Born and raised in the Nairobi Kibera slum, he is co-founder and CEO of Ecotact (an Acumen Fund investee). Ecotact builds and operates public high-quality Ikotoilet brand "mini-malls" - which are affordable pay-per-use shower and toilet facilities that feature waterless urinals, biodigesters and dry toilets. Ikotoilet facilities are located in both urban and rural areas targeting the half of all Kenyans who don't have access to basic sanitation services.

David is an Ashoka Fellow, member of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, winner of the 2008 Global Water Challenge, and the 2009 Schwab Foundation Africa Social Entrepreneur of the Year.

Daniel Burka (bio)

Director of Design, Tiny Speck

Daniel Burka

Director of Design, Tiny Speck

Daniel is a web designer living in San Francisco. Currently, he is the director of design with a startup called Tiny Speck and for several years was the creative director at Digg. Daniel grew up in PEI, Canada, where he was one of the founders of silverorange. Aside from obsessing about interface design and css selectors, he’s a frequently-falling rock climber, a lazy cyclist, and an often out-of-bounds disc golfer.

MacKenzie Fegan (bio)

Director, Writer and Producer

MacKenzie Fegan

Director, Writer and Producer

MacKenzie is a director, writer, and producer specializing in web video. Clients include GOOD, Human Rights Watch, and n+1. She lives in Brooklyn.

Congratulations to MacKenzie Fegan for submitting sewers to the Search for the Obvious. Since her entry, picked by SFTO judge Daniel Burka, was the inspiration for this challenge, we've invited her to participate as a judge!

Media Partners

Resources to help you crush it

Inform your creativity:

In 2007, thousands of readers and a small group of experts polled by the British Medical Journal named sanitation as "the most important medical advance since 1840." Sanitation - seemingly simple, humdrum, and often snicker-inducing - was chosen over antibiotics, x-rays, germ theory, oral contraception, the eradication of smallpox, and countless Nobel Prize-winning advances.

Yet, today, 2.5 billion people - nearly 40% of the world's population - still lack access to basic sanitation. That is, a sanitation facility that "ensures hygienic separation of human excrement from human contact." That's right, human excrement. We're talking about shit, poop, doo doo, number two - whatever you like (or don't like) to call it. 2.5 billion people are doing it out in the open or in latrines or shared facilities so filthy, you can't even imagine, and you don't want to.

And that's the problem. Nobody wants to think about sanitation, so we don't talk about sanitation. We've gotten good at talking about malaria, AIDS, disaster relief, global warming, cancer, safe drinking water, and even investing in girls. But, nobody wants to talk about sanitation. The issue is far from sexy. It's gross. It's uncomfortable. It's funny. It's embarrassing. And it's a shame. So far this year, 1.5 million children have died from sanitation-related illnesses.

Inspirational stuff:

Despite how dire the data looks, things are not without hope! Hope begins with MacKenzie Fegan who "found" sewers in her Search for the Obvious, and our judge Daniel Burka who picked MacKenzie's submission which sparked this challenge. Hope begins with the 1,795 readers of the British Medical Journal who voted for sanitation as the most important medical advance of the last 150 years. Hope begins with the General Assembly of the United Nations naming 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. And hope begins with visionary social entrepreneurs like David Kuria, the founder of Ecotact (an Acumen Fund investee), who is building clean and affordable public toilet facilities throughout Kenya.

Sanitation:
Ecotact:
It’s time to make sanitation sexy! And we’re counting on you to make it obvious to the world. Thank you and good luck!

Submit your Obvious Object/Idea

1. What you found

We're looking for things that:

  • Are physical objects or services
  • Have helped better the world
  • Have helped millions of people

Please check that your object has not already been submitted.

2. Who you are

Maximum Filesize: 250 MB
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