Bottled Water: from the Story of Stuff (animation)
Happy Earth Day!
Have you thought about the use of bottled water
Annie Leonard, who created”The Story of Stuff,” takes on Bootled Water in this animated desciption of how the bottled water industry becames such a huge industry, and the need to keep water affordable for all.
An excerpt–“One of the problems with trying to use less stuff is that sometimes we feel like we really need it. What if you live in a city like, say, Cleveland and you want a glass of water? Are you going to take your chances and get it from the city tap? Or should you reach for a bottle of water that comes from the pristine rainforests of… Fiji? 2 Well, Fiji brand water thought the answer to this question was obvious. So they built a whole ad campaign around it. It turned out to be one of the dumbest moves in advertising history. 3 See the city of Cleveland didn’t like being the butt of Fiji’s joke so they did some tests and guess what? These tests showed a glass of Fiji water is lower quality; it loses taste tests against Cleveland tap and costs thousands of times more. 4 This story is typical of what happens when you test bottled water against tap water. 5 Is it cleaner? Sometimes, sometimes not: in many ways, bottled water is less regulated than tap. 6 Is it tastier? In taste tests across the country, people consistently choose tap over bottled water. 7 These bottled water companies say they’re just meeting consumer demand – But who would demand a less sustainable, less tasty, way more expensive product, especially one you can get almost free in your kitchen? Bottled water costs about 2,000 times more than tap water. Can you imagine paying 2,000 times the price of anything else? How about a $10,000 sandwich? . . .”
