Celebrity WASH Campaigns: Necessary Evil or Missed Opportunity?

As MrBeast partners with WaterAid for his latest water campaign, the water and sanitation (WASH) community has had mixed reactions. Some celebrated the partnership as progress from his previous solo drilling efforts that drew heavy criticism. Others remained skeptical about celebrity involvement in complex development work. But this conversation reveals something deeper: our sector desperately needs to grapple with how we engage public attention and funding. This blog will explore these challenges and how we learn from past experiences.

#TeamWater campaign image (Credit: MrBeast)

Expert Discussions on MrBeast-WaterAid Partnership

A recent conversation among sector professionals discussed MrBeast's partnership with WaterAid and broader challenges in the WASH sector. Some viewed this partnership positively, seeing it as an improvement over his previous solo efforts in 2023 that drew criticism for "poverty porn" and "white knighting." Several experts also believe WaterAid can provide governance models and help MrBeast's team implement more sustainable approaches.

Legal scandals and criticisms of MrBeast aside, the conversation reveals a WASH sector grappling with fundamental questions about strategy, sustainability, and impact. While there's broad agreement on the need for immediate action and long-term system strengthening, participants struggle with how to balance these approaches. MrBeast's involvement could be potentially valuable for raising awareness and demonstrating that different models of engagement are possible in addressing one of the world's most persistent development challenges.

Why is Water and Sanitation Invisible Still?

While climate change has champions like Greta Thunberg and education has Malala and Oprah Winfrey, WASH only really has Matt Damon. Bill and Melinda Gates often focus on numerous issues beyond water and sanitation, making them champions who are difficult to pin down, and their support has waned in recent years. This visibility problem isn't just about awareness – it's about creating the cultural momentum needed to sustain long-term change and encourage financial support from the general public that can sustain efforts.

As a whole, our sector has relied on "old school" outreach: annual reports, technical conferences, and donor PDFs. These methods work to maintain existing funding streams and facilitate discussions with colleagues about work, but fail to reach the masses or build the dinner-table conversations that drive political and social pressure for change. We've created an echo chamber where we speak primarily to ourselves.

The irony? We're quick to criticize MrBeast's approach of well drilling, even when many established NGOs in the sector employ borehole drilling as a form of advertising in remarkably similar ways. If we're going to critique celebrity involvement publicly, we need to apply the same standards to our own sector's marketing practices. But that likely won’t get us anywhere, still.

The Celebrity Engagement Magnet

Different celebrities working on their causes (Credit: AP/Shutterstock; Trae Patton/NBC; Bauergriffin.com; Dominique Charriau/French Select/Getty Images)

Let's be honest about why celebrities become champions. They have a magnetic appeal that transcends borders and demographics in ways that technical reports and annual conferences simply cannot. When Taylor Swift encouraged Americans to register to vote in 2023, tens of thousands registered that same day. MrBeast's previous #TeamTrees campaign raised $23 million in under two months with 800,000 donors – more engagement than most WASH campaigns achieve in a decade.

This isn't about vanity metrics. With billions of people lacking basic amenities like sanitation and water, we need $114 billion annually to reach SDG 6 by 2030. Yet our sector struggles to attract even half that funding. Meanwhile, Americans spend over $40 billion yearly on coffee – a reminder of the attention and resource gaps we're working against.

Celebrities don't just bring their platforms. They come with sponsorship deals, brand partnerships, and ventures that create ripple effects, amplifying awareness far beyond what traditional advocacy can achieve. People connect with familiar faces, and this familiarity makes complex global issues more accessible to everyday donors.

Of course, this could be seen as an oversimplification, as there are many cases of celebrity involvement being successful and disastrous, depending on the context and cultural sensitivities that may or may not be accommodated in their efforts.

The importance of strategic messaging

Here's where celebrity involvement gets complicated – and why the MrBeast-WaterAid partnership represents something different. The real challenge with celebrity advocacy isn't the celebrity involvement itself, but when it happens in an ad hoc fashion without proper guidance.

Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation's Campaign (Credit: GLAAD)

Elizabeth Taylor's long-term commitment to HIV/AIDS advocacy in the 1980s worked because she had organizations guiding her messaging, and she maintained sustained engagement. Leonardo DiCaprio's environmental work succeeds because he's built relationships with credible partners who help navigate complex issues. The key difference in MrBeast's latest effort is that, according to FLUSH’s network of partners, WaterAid and partners like Dig Deep are working closely with him on messaging – something absent from his previous attempts.

This matters because celebrities face real risks when engaging in social causes. It's not just risky for our sector; it's risky for their brand. Poor execution can undermine their credibility, which is why they need strong, contextually appropriate messaging they can confidently champion.

The Challenge with Sector Messaging

There are always debates when something happens in the public sphere. For Mr. Beast, a central tension emerges between two philosophies in the sector – systems strengthening versus action-oriented approaches.

The WASH community often gets caught up in debates between "systems strengthening" versus "immediate action" approaches. Some argue that drilling boreholes is easy – the real challenge lies in maintaining systems and building local capacity. Others counter that we've been "stuck for decades" focusing on frameworks while billions remain unserved, advocating for immediate action even if it means working around dysfunctional systems.

But this binary argument misses the point. Funders and the general public don't want to fund your projects – they want to fund solutions. They don't want to fund boreholes; they want to ensure people have water. They don't want to fund homeless shelters; they want to end homelessness. So, in some sense, the debate of “how” muddies the efforts to get people to see the “why”. Yes, systems strengthening is important, but that’s a lot harder for people to champion and support fundraising campaigns.

This is where celebrity involvement can help. When partnered correctly, celebrities help people visualize solutions through action rather than getting lost in sector complexities. The general public doesn't have the resources to understand all the nuances of sustainable WASH programming, but they can understand the goal of ensuring everyone has safe water.

What's Next: Leveraging This Moment

The MrBeast-WaterAid partnership offers our sector an opportunity to examine how we engage with public attention and funding. Instead of defaulting to criticism, we should ask:

• What can we learn about reaching new audiences?

• How do we balance technical accuracy with compelling storytelling?

• How do we create consistent messaging that celebrities and influencers can authentically champion?

Studies show the general public trusts celebrities more than traditional experts on many issues. Rather than fighting this reality, we should work with it strategically. This means developing sector-wide messaging frameworks that can guide celebrity partnerships, ensuring long-term rather than ad hoc engagement, and creating clear action items that align celebrity influence with sustainable impact.

The stakes are too high for purist approaches. With billions still lacking basic services and funding gaps in the tens of billions, we need every tool available – including celebrity influence when deployed thoughtfully.

Moving forward, successful celebrity partnerships in WASH will require sustained commitment rather than one-off campaigns. These strong organizational partners can provide technical guidance, and clear and consistent messaging that connects individual actions to systemic solutions. The MrBeast-WaterAid partnership, whatever its ultimate outcomes, demonstrates that such collaborations are possible. Our sector's future effectiveness may depend on how well we navigate these partnerships while maintaining our commitment to sustainable, community-centered solutions.

FLUSH can help the sector find a balance between celebrity messaging and technical guidance. If this is a service that you or your organization are interested in getting, please get in touch with us to discuss more!