This Emergency is Sponsored by Nestlé
Whenever there is a disaster that puts people out on the street, bottled water is there. Be it flood, drought, hurricane, fire or water main break, bottled water is always around to save the day. The camera from news coverage of such events will often pan by several cases of bottled water — conveniently delivered for free from a far away place — as if to depict that safety has arrived. The bottled water industry has certainly done a good job in recent years of associating their product with emergencies. But do we really need bottled water in most emergencies?
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Iceberg Water Isn’t So Funny
Most consumers are becoming more aware of the negative impact of purchasing bottled water these days. But what should we do about the others? You know, the ones who want to find an iceberg, bottle it and sell it? That’s what one Newfoundlander is trying to do. Ron Stamp is planning on scraping down icebergs to make a buck. Since maneuvering a boat next to an iceberg is no easy feat, this iceberg water will not be cheap. At $10 per bottle, this gourmet water will be treated more like a bottle of wine.
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Another Round in the Battle Against the Bottle
CNBC’s Power Lunch provided a forum today for yet another debate on the subject of bottled water versus the tap, following a special segment called Liquid Assets. Food & Water Watch Senior Legislative and Policy Analyst Mitch Jones squared off against International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) President and CEO Joe Doss in front of program hosts Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Sue Herera and Tyler Mathisen.
Food & Water Watch Senior Legislative and Policy Analyst Mitch Jones squares off against International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) President and CEO Joe Doss on CNBC’s Power Lunch. In our opinion, Jones wins.
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Kanye, “Say You Will” Take Back the Tap!
The champions of the tap vs. the outlaws of bottled water: TMZ should show how appealing it is when celebrities drink from the tap.
It’s August, so maybe there’s not much going on in the big city. Perhaps that’s why rapper Kanye West found himself tweeting about drinking New York City tap water last week. TMZ felt it was newsworthy in some way, so they mentioned the tweet on their website. It must have seemed trivial to some readers, so they expressed their dismay at how boring the tweet was. Since Kanye’s tweet about NYC tap is the kind of thing we like to hear, I found myself typing the URL for TMZ into my web browser to find out more. TMZ merely showed the contents of what Kanye tweeted—not much worth mentioning… until I noticed one particular photo-montage on their home page.
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The Real Dumb Story of Bottled Water and the Lying Liars Who Tell It (Sorry Al Franken)
The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), the public relations arm of the bottled beverage industry, is taking another shot at controlling the message about water. This time, they point to a succession of overturned bans on bottled water to try to convince people that consumers are changing their minds about buying their “products,” the same product that is available without extra packaging from your tap at home.
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Virginia Falls Off the Wagon
Last week, among government workers of the commonwealth of Virginia, the hot topic around the water cooler is most certainly the water cooler itself. Governor Bob McDonnell proudly defied one critical portion of former Governor Timothy M. Kaine’s plan to “green” Virginia by reversing Kaine’s ban on bottled water. (GULP!) One step forward, two steps back. At a time when many cities across the country are moving forward by reconsidering their relationship with bottled water, McDonnell wants to move all of Virginia backward. Virginia is a bottle-aholic.
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Mom's kicks the bottle habit
Washington Business Journal reported today that Mom’s Organic Market, a local grocery chain with six locations in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, will no longer sell bottled water to their customers. This is great news! The fact that a grocery company has discontinued the sale of bottled water is proof that it can be eliminated from the business model without much of a financial risk for the company.
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Water: I'll take it, but don't wrap it up
The International Bottled Water Association recently reported a decline in the volume of bottled water sold in the United States for the second consecutive year. After a 2.7 percent decrease in 2009, the industry is looking for new ways to attract consumers to their products. Here are two egregious examples of their targeted marketing efforts:
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We Prefer Ad Spin When It’s Left to Don Draper
World Water Day is an excellent opportunity to consider the ways in which our choices as consumers affect world water resources. As many of you already know, bottled water contributes to the world’s pollution and waste problems. It is also a prime example of corporate spin run amok. While the oh-so-clever industry execs have convinced many people that bottled water is better than water from the tap, in most cases this is simply not true. It actually reminds us of another industry infamous for using misinformation to peddle its products…
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How are you celebrating World Water Day?
Hey there! This is Kelly Barrett, communications intern here at Food & Water Watch, with an important announcement. If you haven’t yet heard of World Water Day, listen up…
March 22nd is World Water Day!
Like the rest of us at Food & Water Watch, I’m pumped about World Water Day and want you to be too. What better time to take back our tap? We are so excited, we want to hear all about what you are doing to celebrate World Water Day. There are lots of ways to get involved, so get moving and then tell us about it via Twitter, on Facebook, or in a comment on this post. Here are some ideas for getting in on the action:
- Pledge to Take Back the Tap!
- Ask Congress to Take Back the Tap.
- Join our virtual march to Take Back the Tap on Facebook (with lots of ways to take action).
- Help to host a movie screening of one of these great documentary films that focus on the world’s water crisis.
- Sign up to receive our action alerts and if you’re one of the first 25 to do so, win that nifty “Take Back the Tap” stainless steel water canteen.
- Then…after you take action, tweet us about it, write on our Facebook wall or on the event page, or leave a comment here to tell us what you’re doing.
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