Arnold on ethical marketing

CHRIS ARNOLD

My great grandfather said that if you could sell water and get suckers to buy it you’d be a millionaire. Well that was long before Perrier came on the scene. Now the industry is worth $35 billion pa with Americans spending more on water than petrol. But a new campaign, ‘tappening’, backed by religious groups, city authorities and NGOs in the US is now a major threat that could kill off many water brands.

Many people believe that bottled water is a healthy option – well that’s the effect of good marketing. In fact most bottled waters wouldn’t meet the tough regulations for tap water, though ironically 25% of bottled water is actually water from municipal water supplies. Just to highlight what a con bottled water is, one well known brand comes from a well on an industrial estate next to a toxic waste dump  (though the picture of a mountain on the label doesn’t give that impression).

But now those with more money than sense (and probably a MPV) are having to rethink their buying habits.

Bottles are out – 2008 will see the rug pulled out from under the bottled water industry. Already it’s loosing water cooler share of the corporate and food services market as filtered tap water dispensers are making major inroads (though more because of cost savings than environmentalism).

From transport to manufacture to landfill, bottles (both plastic and glass) are being seen as ungreen. Bottled water is the new enemy of the green movement.

The ‘tappening’ campaign is encouraging people to drink only tap water and to send a green message to the bottled water industry about its extreme waste of fossil fuels and resultant pollution of the earth. Two agencies in the US, DiMassimo Goldstein and Ericho Communications, have created a message in a bottle campaign with the slogan ‘Think Global, Drink Local.’

They have already sent thousands of bottles to Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent and are aiming to send a million (though I think Coke has already got the point).

Several States have jumped on the green bandwagon and tried to ban bottled water (San Francisco has banned it in all city offices). Chicago has been the first major city to levy a ‘sin tax’ - a five cent tax on each bottle of water sold, which could generate over $10 million for the city council (that might be something our Ken could try in London).

San Francisco and New York, have both been encouraging residents to drink more tap water, while UNICEF has been running a campaign in the States to get people back to the tap and off the bottle. Many restaurants are also moving over to filtered tap water as drinking bottle water is starting to be seen as socially unacceptable in some circles as smoking.

Finally, one of the strangest backers of ‘tappening’ is the Catholic church’s Janet Corcoran, known as the Green Franciscan Sister. She’s encouraging religious groups across the US to join the movement – it seems bottled water is the work of the devil and tap water is mother nature’s gift.

See www.tappening.com