New York’s East River is not a water wonderland. It’s a watery dump site. An odd place for Heineken to want to build a floating pool? Not really. The brand has good motives. The pool will filter thousands of gallons of river water a day to make a swimmable pool for everyone in New York.
The idea, +Pool, is part of Heineken’s Cities Project which was launched in 2015, and the brand has teamed up with Tribeca Studios and +Pool to demonstrate that the idea is sound.
The Cities Project is an ongoing campaign that raises awareness for, and helps to bring to fruition, projects that make cities better. It is part of Heineken’s larger commitment to Brewing a Better World, which aims to connect with and serve the communities in which Heineken does business or calls home. The Cities Project has already revived Miami’s Marine Stadium using graffiti art and created Leo Villareal’s Bay Lights in San Francisco.
Heineken’s is supporting the floating pool concept with a nine minute documentary and 360-film, Floating an Idea: The +Pool Story, narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. The film was made with Tribeca Studios and directed by Bianca Giaever of m ss ng p eces.
Floating An Idea outlines the origin of the idea in 2010. It began from a simple wish to swim in the river, by one of the project’s co-founders, architect Dong-Ping Wong. It reminds new Yorkers that swimming in the river was a favourite pastime in the early 1900s when it housed floating bathhouses, and shares interviews with +Pool’s founders and supporters to explain how a floating Olympic-sized swimming pool will double as a filtering system to benefit the New York environment, cleaning up half a million gallons of water every day.
The documentary’s aim is to ignite the support of everyday people and asks them to sign a pledge to swim in the pool every day. If 100,000 pledges are signed, Heineken will contribute an additional US$100,000 to the project’s development.
Heienken has also supported the development of a campaign website, PlusPool.org, where people can follow the project’s progress.
Credits:
Client: Heineken
Production Company: m ss ng p eces
Produced by: Tribeca Studios
Director: Bianca Giaever
Editors: Liz Deegan, Mohamed Elsafty & Brian Frank
DoP: Mikey Van Beuren
Executive Producers: Tara Rush, Nuno Teles & Felix Palau
Supervising Producer: Sarah E. Walker
Associate Producers: Quinn Kilbury, Raul Esquer & Bjorn Trowery
Line Producer: Anna Marie Pitman
First Assistant Director: Corie Purdey
Production Supervisor: Kyle McGuiness
Original Music: Museum of Love by Ben Orbison & Gabe Nussbaum
Sound Mix: Jacob Blumberg, One Thousand Birds
Animation: Ntropic
