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Esquire and UNICEF TAP NY’s Greatest Natural Resource: Generosity

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Last night we were among the 300 guests at the national launch party for the TAP Project on the 44th floor of the beautiful and always fabulous Hearst Tower. The project was hosted by Esquire magazine and UNICEF and created by advertising agency Droga 5 as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the lack of clean drinking water worldwide. And we have to say that the promotional swag for the TAP Project is dripping with visual appeal. Last year Esquire and UNICEF created “World Water Day” and it has now grown into "World Water Week". From March 16-22 several hundred restaurants in New York invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they normally drink for free. After only being around for 2 years, TAP has spread into 44 states with close to 2,000 participating restaurants. Clearly there's some momentum flowing behind this clean water project.

Celebrities-for-a-cause events can very easily start to slide down the slippery slope of self-important sucking, but this party was done right. Not too crowded, a comfortable mix of media, celebs (Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of Craft Restaurants and head judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef” among them) and a sprinkle of guys in square glasses and crazily-patterned suits. David Granger, Esquire’s clever editor-in-chief, kept his comments brief but recalled how the ad campaign came to be back in 2006. “They (Droga 5) came to me saying they wanted to create something out of nothing and then make it sell. “Now it’s really something.”

UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu spoke to the crowd as well, passionately proclaiming, “I want water to be an action, not a noun" (don’t worry Lucy, we know what you meant). A short video of her African missionary efforts reinforced important statistics like the fact that each year 1.8 million people die as a result of unclean water. Even those of us who are dead inside found it a bit tough to jump right back in party mode after the lights came on, but we snapped out of it. The Champagne wasn't going to spill itself.

Lucy Liu and David Granger Liu on Red Carpet

UNICEF Ambassador Marcus Samuelsson, chef/co-owner of Aquavit;
Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of Craft Restaurants and head judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef”;
Kevin O’Malley, VP/publisher, Esquire.

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