Fiji Bottled Water New Ad Campaign

I guess the premise of Fiji's advertising is that the company is doing things with consumers' money that end up reducing airborne carbon. Of course, that doesn't mean that a consumer who wants to fight global warming couldn't invest the money more effectively.

I suppose that means, yes, they do think consumers are that stupid.

/Lew

That's right. What could be green about a water that's shipped from such a long distance, packaged in plastic bottles that will take centuries to biodegrade? And what's wrong with local water? I always use a good source of local water - sometimes straight from the source (like the tap), hahahaha.

Yes. And most consumers *are* that stupid. That's why advertising & marketing works. Remember, human achievement is not accomplished by the species as a whole, but by the contributions of a few unique individuals. Most people are drones who plod through life accepting everything that is fed them by society and the media, and rarely think about the world around them. Of course this will attract and retain consumers. And it's a brilliant marketing campaign for the time, even though the premise is a complete and utter lie. That is what marketing is all about...

I agree with you that is how advertising and marketing work. But I just feel like this campaign is so over the top transparent that it actually makes me angry that they think no one will remember what they are shipping and where it is coming from and a green raindrop makes it all OK. I do not remeber having this gut reaction to a simple ad before? Almost like I've been insulted personally.

Ha! yep, i understand and agree. It's pretty idiotic. But, and sorry to repeat myself, people are stupid. They *don't* think about this stuff. Look at the state of the world today and you can see that if humans actually gave a damn about anything then all these horrible situations around the world would not exist. But they don't, and the few of us who do care can't fix things ourselves. So drink up! Pretend all is well like everyone else! ;) Because Fiji Water Company LLC signed a 100 year deal with the Island to bottle it's water, so there are plenty more of these campaigns to come. *sigh*

Ha Ha... and look what I came across just now coincidentally while reading some news:

Whoever even considers green and "bottled water" together bar dichotemy ought to retake Common Sense 101.

Green Advertising in general is just another way of appealing to the already extant hypocrisy of a people consumed with reactionism.

Aaron Hsu

I don't think I've agreed more with an RFDT posting in quite a while. It's also timely; I just read an article in Technology Review which shows that the average US resident is responsible for 20 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. Compare that to 4 metric tons as the worldwide average (US included). Even a homeless person in the US is responsible for 8.5 metric tons per year!

I've long been an opponent of bottled water. Much has been written about the phenomenon, so I won't repeat it here. My objections are along the lines stated here: the environmental cost of shipping heavy bottles of water around the globe is ludicrous. I make a point of "ordering" tap water (or "ice water" as it's referred to in many places; gives it more cache) over bottled water when I eat out. In Las Vegas I will usually order a round of "Lake Mead's finest".

The bright side is the emergence of "localvores". While it's nice to be able to eat any fresh food year-round, with modern preservation methods we can still enjoy most out-of-season foods in some form. We've had the luxury of eating tomatoes (albeit mealy and flavorless) in winter; let's get back to seasonal produce that we can appreciate. I believe we would appreciate and enjoy particular foods more if we couldn't have them for part of the year.

Also, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks that people are stupid. Present company excepted.

Alan

I do drink bottled water quite simply because it tastes much better. My preference in regards to taste of water is: Poland spring .5L bottles >

Poland spring 5Gal > Fiji, Evian, etc > filtered water > unfiltered tap.

On the other hand I don't have a car so I don't create co2 by driving one and I don't fly airplane for vacations, and I don't eat meat which is more costly environmentally than vegetarian food. So, it's a matter of comparing the total co2 and other pollution that your lifestyle leads to. What is the co2 cost of one 4-hour car ride vs. shipment of spring water first by train and then by truck? What is the cost of one airplane roundtrip compared to shipment of bottled water from Poland Springs to NYC?

You also have to consider indirect costs. Many people will buy a bottle of water instead of buying some other type of bottled drink. Other drinks are more co2-costly because they still contain water that has to be shipped, and other ingredients have to be processed, too.

Another way to look at indirect costs is that drinking water instead of other beverages can improve health, and health services are co2-costly as well, because hospitals have to be built, doctors and nurses have to drive to medical schools, then drive to their place of work, medical equipment has to be manufactured. If people have a choice of drinking the best tasting bottled water vs. tap water, they may choose to drink something else entirely if tap water does not taste good, out of misguided care for environment, and end up doing far greater environmental damage.

I don't see why shipping bottled water has to be so costly. It should be shipped by train from source and bottled in every large city, and then shipped in diesel trucks. Certainly more costly than tap water but less costly than pretty much any other drink.

I only drink water and tea made with spring water

- I want my water to taste good. Tap and filtered water most definitely do not.

I'll agree, though, that buying Fiji and Evian is silly, they taste worse than Poland Spring (especially Evian!), and are more costly to ship. But railing against them is pointless without some hard numbers comparing their use vs. other common co2-heavy expenses, e.g. manufacture of a car, of home electronics, driving a car, raising cattle for meat, running an air conditioner, heating, etc etc.

I don't know the exact numbers, but I'd be willing to get that giving up meat would have a much greater impact on one's carbon footprint than giving up bottled water. I am kind of doubting that bottled water (rather than food production, energy costs, and personal transportation) plays a huge role in US citizens' carbon footprints.

I do try to use a mixture of filtered water and bottled rather than only bottled water (and sometimes I'll even just use filtered), but I find that filtered water is usually either *too* filtered (i.e., doesn't have enough mineral content to make good tea), or else isn't filtered enough (off-tastes, flouride, etc.). I think I'm actually more picky about the water that I use for tea than I am for the water I drink or cook with.

Some folks here have had good luck with re-mineralizing RO-filtered water.

I grew up drinking tap water (the tap water where I grew up is great), but the (unfiltered) tap water here in Southern California, while safe to drink and not anywhere near as bad-tasting as the tap water in, say, Shanghai, is not very delicious.

really?!

i was just about to buy some of those 'special' brands to see if they make my tea better (if i'd taste any difference that is)

Perhaps the issue is that bottled water is an *unneeded* addition to the carbon footprint of our species. That's how I see it. I drink bottled water on road trips, camping, etc, but never just day to day. I see it having it's place, but to market it as "green" is just plain misleading IMHO.

In fact, all of carbon footprint of our species is " unneeded ". Our species was a species before it had an appreciable carbon footprint. You might go over co2-producing activities and argue which ones are more or less unneeded and which ones are more/less costly:

activity X: unneedness-factor: 0.2; co2 cost: 1cm3 per unit/liter/kilo/ etc activity Y: unneedness-factor: 0.35; co2 cost: 2.5cm3 per unit/liter/ kilo/etc

By the way I found an explanation for Fiji green drop thingy:

Anyway, I wouldn't call water unneeded. I can probably last a few weeks without food, much less cars and radios, but not more than a couple days without water. And if I have a choice of foul tasting water and nothing, I will often choose nothing (of course to a point).

Good tasting water should be counted as one of basic human rights.. By the way, I'm particularly sensitive to water taste - I can feel much difference between tea made with slowly boiled water, quickly boiled water, boiled with an electric range, an electric pot. It may be beacause I almost always avoid spicy, seasoned, salty foods and strong-tasting drinks. For example, I noticed that if I drink gongfu-prepared oolongs or pu-erhs, on the next day my usual brewed whites and greens taste too bland. Once one more day passes, my taste readjusts and I can enjoy whites and greens again. -ak

i never called water unneeded, i called bottled water unneeded. awhile there are areas of the world where safe water cannot be found and water may need to be shipped in, putting water in little bottles and shipping them halfway around the globe to someone who can just as easily turn a faucet for the same quality is pretty much an unneeded item. It's yet another example of how stupid humans are, and how easily they fall victim to marketing.

1. My point is that good-tasting water is not " unneeded " to me and apparently many other people.
2. In some areas indeed there is no safe water. This means that for them, I'd use a stronger word and say it's crucial for their survival, not merely needed.
3. Water out of my faucet has a metallic aftertaste. Filtered water still tastes wrong in a way that's harder to characterize but it's still very far off.
4. It would be much smarter of you not to suspect people of being too gullible viz. water marketing campaings when it's apparent that your tongue is " not smart enough " to tell foul tasting faucet water from delicious spring water.
5. People have different priorities. It would seem that you like sushi, jerky and tea. I also like to make sushi and obviously love tea but I'd never make a claim that either of them is more " needed " than good tasting water.

Exactly in the same way, you might argue that air is needed for life but fresh air is not " needed ", as you can survive without it. And yet few would be willing to live downwind from a city dump, regardless of the argument that there are cities or countries who have it even worse.

Not only that, in some areas, there isn't enough water. Tap water totally undrinkable (or so they say) - in some parts of China. But in Fuzhou, it seems most people drink the tap water - but boil it first. Except the kettle turns all brown on the inside after awhile. But the boiled water tastes pretty sweet - but not quite as good as what's available bottled. I don't know where the source of Fuzhou's tap water comes from - maybe from the mountains surrounding Fuzhou I guess.

Water is kind of a scarce commodity in some areas - that's kind of scary when you think about it.