PUR Tackles Clean Water in Haiti and Around the World

I first came across this PUR ad online, and have since seen it several times on TV.  I like this ad a lot, despite not caring much for Zach Braff (the “Voice of Water” for PUR).

The reason I like it is because the connection between PUR’s filtration systems and its work to provide clean water to people in resource-poor countries just makes sense.  That’s because PUR originally developed its “Purifier of Water” packets as a product for those at the bottom of the pyramid.  When P&G—the maker of PUR—determined the private sector approach wouldn’t work, they adapted and switched their strategy.

Here’s what Insead’s Knowledge vault has to say:

“The product had clear social benefits, providing clean drinking water for households in places where the health risks of untreated drinking water are high, especially for children. After three years of market tests though, PUR was looking like a commercial failure. Many other firms would have closed down the project, but P&G instead moved PUR to its corporate sustainability department, easing the pressure on turning a profit. Since 2003, P&G has sold the product at cost and worked in partnership with nonprofit organizations, who distribute the product through their development and humanitarian relief networks.”

Through its Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, PUR has formed some impressive partnerships that give its clean water packets distribution in the places that need them most.  Not only has CSDW been there for disaster relief efforts in Haiti and southern Asia (where it shipped 28 million packets of PUR “Purifier of Water” to tsunami-affected areas in 2005), but it has also provided 1.8 billion liters of clean water to children and their families all around the world.