Anglian Water “Slug It Out” campaign

Slugs are one of the most devastating pests faced by UK farmers – without effective control, large amounts of wheat and oilseed rape would be severely damaged. Slug It Out is aimed at reducing the levels of the most commonly used chemical in slug pesticides – metaldehyde – in the water supply. Although harmless to humans, the chemical is very difficult to remove at water treatment works and meeting tough EU targets on it is a real challenge for the region.

Anglian Water spends large amounts of money removing pesticides from drinking water – this raises customers’ bills and wastes energy. With levels of metaldehyde reaching 90 times the EU limit in one reservoir in 2014, Anglian Water felt it was essential to launch this new campaign. The focus of Slug It Out is those farmers operating around six key reservoirs: Alton Water in Suffolk; Ardleigh Reservoir near Colchester; Hollowell Reservoir, Ravensthorpe Reservoir and Pitsford Water in Northamptonshire; and Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire.

As part of the brand development, Fine Design was asked to come up with a logo that was friendly and appealing, without being too gimmicky. The result is a logo that is bold and compact, with strong typography and a touch of humour in the use of the silhouette of a slug taking a bite out of the ‘l’. The logo incorporates the Anglian Water colours of purple and blue with the phrase ‘healthy crops’ picked out in a soft green, complementing the overall colour scheme.

Slug It Out is designed to inform and encourage farmers to find alternative ways of treating slugs so, in addition to the logo, Fine Design developed corporate literature and promotional items. These form part of the trial campaign being carried out that will work with farmers to enable them to replace metaldehyde-based pesticides with those containing an alternative – ferric phosphate.

The literature outlines the core message and also presents the ‘key facts’ explaining the benefits of ferric phosphate over metaldehyde.

Anglian Water is keen to help farmers find alternatives to harmful pesticides, and that fit in with their own individual businesses. Slug It Out is part of a new Catchment Management approach and is a proactive, responsible way of improving the water in rivers and reservoirs while protecting customers, the farming community and the environment.