‘Wasteful' Defra promo film shown on video player that can only be used once

Telegraph

20-03-2025

A campaign backed by Defra has been criticised as wasteful after a publicity film was sent to journalists on video players that can only be used once.
The Project Groundwater campaign, which is funded by taxpayer money, commissioned a two-minute film from Aardman Studio, creators of Wallace and Gromit.
The campaign sent out video players for journalists to view the £130,000 animation, which depicts a lonely mole – named Darcy – who is looking for love but struggling in floods created by groundwater.
In the film, Darcy emerges to look for a mate but his potential match is taken away by floodwaters that rise through the ground. The mole is chased up through tunnels in the ground, before a home is shown being flooded.
A narrator says: 'Floods can be incredibly hard to deal with. But if we support each other, we can still look forward to happy times ahead.'
The video, commissioned as part of a £20 million campaign, is intended to raise awareness of the risk from groundwater flooding and the importance of community support to recover.
However, the campaign has been criticised over its seemingly wasteful use of materials.
The lithium-ion in the video player's battery is a valuable material that can be used for electric cars and wind turbines, while the player itself is also not easily recyclable and could create fires if placed in regular rubbish collection, experts told The Telegraph.
A spokesman for the Project Groundwater campaign told The Telegraph that the video player's battery could be reused 500 times, and said it could be returned to the PR company to use again.
But no information was included with the video about how to recycle or dispose of it, nor did it include warnings about the risk of fires if placed in the rubbish.
'Short-sighted and foolish'
Libby Peake, head of resource policy at think tank Green Alliance, said it was short-sighted to waste precious lithium-ion batteries that were needed for the green transition.
'It's clear that they're trying to create a novel way to get attention for an environmental issue that is difficult to get attention for,' she said. 'But it's incredibly short-sighted and foolish to do so in a way that will make other environmental problems harder, including dealing with waste.'
'Even recycling doesn't tend to preserve the value of the material, and it can be a challenge to extract some of the materials from smaller batteries or from these electronic devices in general,' she said.
Small electricals cannot be put in kerbside recycling and must be taken to dedicated centres, which can be several hours from people's homes.
'We already get through the second highest amount of electronics per person every year, in the entire world, so we've got a particular problem,' said Ms Peake. 'And doing things like this isn't going to help - these low-quality gadgets that are only going to be used once and then thrown away.'
The environment department said the Project Groundwater campaign was entirely the remit of three local authorities: Buckinghamshire Council, Lincolnshire Council and Gateshead Council.
Conservative-run Buckinghamshire Council was recently forced to act to clear drains after residents complained to the local press that years of inaction had led to persistent flooding.
Meanwhile Lincolnshire County Council, also Tory-run, recently handed out £1 million to flood-hit residents.
'Help increase understanding'
Meshi Taka, spokesperson at Project Groundwater Northumbria, said: 'All project partners worked closely together to develop this campaign, with the animation agreed upon as the most effective way of communicating this message.
'A small number of media kits were sent to select journalists who we thought would enjoy watching the brand new Aardman animation and to help increase understanding around the issue of groundwater flooding.
'The materials used were sustainable, reusable and recyclable wherever possible, with a number of B-Corp and ethically accredited suppliers contracted for this campaign.'
The PR company that supported the campaign, Mcbryde and Co, is a B-Corp certified company. B-Corp companies are 'a global community of businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact'.
Mike Follett, the founder of advertising research company Lumen, said the marketing industry rarely considered its environmental footprint.
He added that the groundwater flooding video player was 'a massively wasteful use of resources, especially because they could have sent it out electronically.'