Don't feel guilty. Do you also drink bottled water? Come on, a lot of people do it. It doesn't matter that tap water is completely healthy and free. Or almost. In addition, no plastic container is supplied that contaminates the planet. Why is the United States spending an average of $ 12 billion a year on bottled water and many millions more worldwide? Perhaps it is because bottled water is the advertising stunt of the century. This explains why bottled water will exceed the consumption of soft drinks in the near future.
Water for everyone
This market is moving £ 1.6 billion a year in Great Britain. The tap water there has very high quality standards. It is subject to strict controls and is free of charge. Unexplained? Not for Richard Wilk, Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the United States. He says bottled water is a better example to show us how the global capitalist market works today. He believes that what is bought is freedom of choice. This is the only way to explain that you have to pay for something that you can have for free.
But of course there are other reasons. For example, advertising. Bottled water is the advertising trick of the century because it knows how to combine your product with the concepts of health and sophistication. Evian's brand slogan is famous: Live Young. According to the company, it expresses the values of the brand, which include origins, health and youth.
It is usually sold as a healthy alternative. Alternative to what? Of course not about tap water. He prefers to use bottled water over sugary and carbonated. It is a less complex and more acceptable struggle. You don't want to compete with tap water. Public tap water is of exceptional quality in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2012, the British Drinking Water Inspectorate released samples from 1.9 million tests in England and Wales. They showed 99.96% compliance with the legal provisions. As the magazine The Ecologist shows, the percentage of compliance with water standards in England has been over 99% in the past 20 years.
Let yourself be carried away by what you see. This is the meaning of the packaging. The company that sells Norwegian mineral water Isklar knows that. They insist on its quality as a "pure glacier" frozen and flawless. In the UK, Highland Spring boasts that "we only bottle water products from natural sources". When you say so much, you believe it in the end.
Not what it is, but what you see
This advertisement implicitly contrasts the purity of the product with the artificiality of modern life. By buying bottled water, we can convey our individuality. And it shows us how we take care of our body and the environment. It is strange that the plastic in the bottles is still so harmful to the environment.
There are voices that are already being raised. Ecologist magazine described the "obsession" of the western public with bottled water as a national scandal. Professor Paul Younger, specialist in water resources and groundwater engineering, said that "the bottled water industry is a scam". Elizabeth Royte, author of the book "Obsession with Bottles: Why Did You Start Selling Bottled Water and Why Did We Buy It?" It says.
No, you don't have to hide the water bottle now. Maybe you should just ask yourself silently: is bottled water really the advertising stunt of the century?
