Reuters’ Phil Andraos muddies the water in pursuit of pure news

With a surfeit of news resulting in a corresponding decrease in trust in its veracity, Gravity Road came up with a nifty metaphor to show the purity of Reuters news content: water.

The agency’s ‘Pure News, Straight from the Source’ campaign began last year — water is purest at its source, and so is news. The latest work extends on this insight.

In two new films, clear water is subjected to the sort of laboratory treatment that turns an abstract argument about information into something the viewer can actually watch happening: colour seeps in, clarity disappears, and what was once transparent becomes something harder to see through.

It remains a simple creative device. Rather than illustrating misinformation with shocking 'sham' headlines and obvious digital noise, Gravity Road has found a physical process that does the job. Better still, the process of making the ads itself has become part of the argument. The films were made using genuine laboratory experiments, shot for real rather than manufactured in post-production — a particularly resonant choice for a campaign whose message is that the real thing matters.

This marks an interesting evolution from last year’s launch campaign, which deliberately used generative AI alongside original Reuters footage to explore the distinction between the real and the convincingly unreal. This time, Reuters and Gravity Road have gone in the other direction: no AI, no visual sleight of hand, just water, chemistry, and a camera.

Phil Andraos, general manager, Reuters Digital, talks about about finding the idea, why water proved such a rich creative metaphor, the decision to make the new films for real, and why he thinks there is still plenty more that can be done with the campaign.

Creative Salon: Has news misinformation/disinformation worsened?

Phil Andraos: 46 per cent of respondents in the 2026 Reuters Institute Digital News Report say that they are concerned about what is real or false online. In addition, trust in news has fallen to 37 per cent globally, the lowest ever recorded level since the Reuters Institute began tracking this metric in 2015. All of this points to the growing issue of misinformation, and a problem that is likely only going to get worse as AI-generated content proliferates across the internet. The good news is that, in this environment, we're confident that fact-based journalism will only become more important and valuable.

Why did you decide to launch your first brand campaign last year?

Reuters has a unique story to tell. The organisation has spent 175 years building a reputation for independence, accuracy, and objectivity, but we hadn't historically invested in telling that story directly to consumers. Some did not even know that they can get our news on Reuters.com. The campaign was an opportunity to make the Reuters brand more visible and more relevant at a moment when people are actively looking for sources they can trust.

How did you end up with pure water as a creative metaphor for Reuters' news output?

We worked through several concepts with Gravity Road. In the end, the water metaphor emerged as the strongest concept. It's a simple yet powerful metaphor that is visually compelling and tells the Reuters story in a clever way. Water is purest at its source, and the same is true of news. Reuters has journalists on the ground around the world reporting first-hand as events unfold. Reuters is also the source for our news agency customers – where the news gets its news. The campaign uses water as a way of bringing that idea to life: Reuters helps people get closer to the source.

Can you share any results from the initial campaign?

We were very encouraged by the results last year, which is why we continued to expand the campaign this year. First and foremost, the campaign succeeded in giving Reuters a much stronger and more distinctive consumer brand voice. In addition, we saw engagement rates with our ads that were well above industry benchmarks. And lastly, we saw a statistically significant increase in the share of new subscriptions coming from the markets we targeted last year which told us the campaign was resonating and supported the growth of our consumer subscription business.

Talk about your new campaign films and what you hope to achieve?

The new videos expand upon the Pure News, Straight from the Source positioning with two completely new executions. They show the breadth of our creative platform, and the goal is to stay top of mind with our target audience of news enthusiasts. However, whereas last year we used Generative AI to create some of our ad to contrast what is real with what is not, this year we decided to have everything created in real life and shot in a studio. Bringing the metaphor to life felt important as we continue to emphasise the importance of providing direct access to verified journalism to our subscribers. The first spot speaks to clarifying what’s essential when news and information becomes cloudy, and the second speaks to how news can be clouded by partisan opinion. In each case the message is that those choosing Reuters choose to see clearly.

Will the water metaphor be used in other ways for future campaigns?

The water metaphor has a lot of runway and there are lots of great ideas that we've been discussing with Gravity Road. Watch this space!

What have you enjoyed/learned most about working on this campaign?

We really enjoyed the opportunity to help bring the Reuters brand to life for consumers. Reuters is one of the most trusted and recognised names in journalism, but historically we've been the source of the news that people consume elsewhere. It was fascinating to step back and ask a fundamental question: what does Reuters stand for, and how do you communicate that in a simple, memorable way?

Personally, I was reminded that brand marketing is both art and science. You can rely on audience insights, testing, and data, but at some point you need conviction and a willingness to take a leap of faith on a creative idea.

Lastly, it was clear from the start that the brand campaign required close collaboration with our creative and media agencies. Watching an idea evolve from our first brainstorms with them into a fully realised campaign was incredibly rewarding.