River Thames Boat Race: E.coli testing

With a meagre budget of £4k, River Action's goal was simple but incredibly ambitious: to transform public opinion, in an election year, on river pollution on the Thames caused by Thames Water using the historic Gemini Boat Race between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as the news hook.

What happened next smashed all reasonable expectations, as the world’s media reported on the story we created leading to institutional investors withdrawing funding from Thames Water. In total, we generated more than 1,750 high profile media stories. The Times of London devoted its main editorial column to our research and calls for reform of the water companies. Marina Hyde from the Guardian wrote a column on it. The Week put the story on its cover with the headline “England’s Dirty Water’ above an illustration of the Oxbridge rowers on the Thames retching, holding their noses; even The New York Times reported on the research. Perhaps the Observer put it best, “For the first time, Fox News, CNN and other international outlets ran stories about the race’s build-up. As Thursday’s New York Times reported: “The warning is stern: Do not enter the water. Not because of the tide.