The Commodification of Nature's Source: How the World was Duped by the Water Bottle Industry

Water. Nature’s number one source of replenishment that’s readily available in virtually every kitchen on the planet has become the most lucrative commodity garnering billions of dollars in sales for the companies that bottle and sell it. It’s difficult to imagine that something that is essentially free from our taps, can be marketed in such a brilliant way that people would purchase it in plastic bottles by the multi-dozen. This is undoubtedly a testament to the clever marketing and branding campaigns that companies pour millions of dollars into to ensure their product’s success. However, this success also rides critically on the notion that the safety of our tap water is somehow untrustworthy or dirty to consume. For years, companies have propagated a fear campaign against tap water in order to manipulate the consumer to turn instead to their products - the bottled-water alternative, with little thought to what this massive industry does to our planet and the environment. This is further compounded by the public’s distrust in governments that lack transparency, such as in the case of Flint, Michigan where the public water source has been tainted. In this article I explore the stratagem of advertising and how it is central to driving consumer consumption of bottled water. I'll take a deep dive into the propaganda machine perpetuated by companies that push the fear campaign of public water safety onto the public. Finally, I will then consider the detrimental effects this consumption has on the environment, as well as the clever new ways companies are using manipulative environmental branding to target those more environmentally conscious consumers. Advertising is at the core of human consumption thus can share the blame in the degradation of our planet.

To understand our obsession with bottled water a brief historical overview is necessary. Throughout history, during medieval times, water was not only scarce, but also not potable. It was a dangerous act to drink water, and the urbanization of cities and towns further contributed to polluting water and making it undrinkable (Crook et al., 2009). Fortunately, with the appearance of agriculture, that all changed. “The problems of polluted communal waters were solved by advances in capturing, filtering, storing and distributing water” (Crook et al., 2009, p. 4). The commodification of bottled water began soon after. However, mass production and commercialization of bottled water didn’t actually begin until the 18 and 19th Centuries, when spa culture came to the culmination of its acclaim. Relegated to the wealthy, the history of spa culture was the beginning of the pursuit for the purest water that would eventually lead to bottled water becoming a “highly designed commodified product” (Crook et al., 2009, p. 5). Pure, clean water from natural springs is synonymous with health and well-being. While glass packaged water bottles are synonymous with wealth and the cultured class. This would give companies ample conviction that bottling nature’s source and selling it as the elixir of life would generate obscene profits. Thus, began one of the biggest, albeit clever, marketing campaigns that would dupe populations around the world with the notion that clean, fresh bottled water would heal and transform our bodies, while boosting our social distinction to one of class and wealth (Wilk, 2006).

During the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Capitalism in the early 20th Century, with the perfecting of filtration systems in urban cities around the world, bottled water became more of a “lifestyle product, and the health issues it promised to counter were obesity and not disease, as it had been in earlier times” (Crook et al., 2009). Due to rising numbers in obesity the appeal to weight issues became an obvious strategy for advertisers to target consumers, and bottled water became the catalyst for change. Soon, water bottle companies would market and brand their product, appealing to the consumer’s need for health and well-being, not taking into account the eventual impact the industry would have on the environment.

It’s hard to tell the difference between the hundreds of different bottled waters on the market today. After all, most water tastes, well, like water. How do consumers distinguish between which ones they want to purchase over others? Thus, advertising becomes a crucial component in order for companies to stand apart from the rest. For their part, companies have relied heavily on the symbol of nature to market their water bottle products to consumers. Nature is seen as pure, clean, natural, and consumers can create and communicate their own self-image around it. “As bottled water suppliers use high levels of advertising to create symbolic meanings of health, purity, and social status, it is plausible to assume that consumers use the symbolism of bottled water to express their self-identity” (Crook et al., 2009, p. 16). In doing so, advertisers create meaning for the consumer, and this is part in parcel of how advertising works to drive consumption. Further to this point, theorist, professor and filmmaker, Sut Jhally says, “Advertising takes a very real desire for human connection and transforms that into consumption” (Jhally, 2017). When consumers identify strongly with a product or group using that product, it becomes second nature to want to own it, thus adding to an already over consumption of bottled water.

To look at an example of this self-identification that advertising creates, thus driving consumption, we can examine the example of Perrier mineral water, which was one of the first to cross over seas from Europe into America. The bottles of Perrier are green (the colour of nature) signifying natural purity. Initially made of glass, mineral water, bottled in glass was synonymous with spa culture, wealth and class. Perrier was marketed as natural spring water that was better than tap (more on this later) and naturally sparkling from the center of the earth. This marketing strategy created the whole mythical notion of nature that it draws its meaning from, and consumers can identify with the notion of purity/cultured, which equates to goodness/wealth. Perrier was created initially as a niche market catering to wealthy people who wanted to showcase their wealth. It could be found in fancy restaurants and was geared to the high-class consumer. The idea of nature is crucial to a company’s success in selling their water products and the magic created by advertising in this billion-dollar industry is key to consumer consumption.

Another way to generate consumer interest in the water bottle industry to such an extent that we’d pay for something that is readily available from our taps is to propagate fear and distrust in our public water sources. Tap water has become public enemy number one and this is in part due to large corporations that inform us of this through misleading advertisements. Robert S. Morris, chairman of PepsiCo North America stated it quite clearly when he said, “The biggest enemy is tap water” (Jaffee & Newman, 2013, p. 1). Likewise, Susan Wellington, the president of Quaker Oats Beverage Division also once proclaimed, “When we’re done, tap water will be relegated to showers and washing dishes,” (Jaffee & Newman, 2013, p. 1), inferring that it’s not something that’s safe enough for the public to consume. These two quotes demonstrate the agenda corporations employ to proliferate the negative brainwashing against tap water. If the public is convinced that tap water isn’t good for them, they’ll turn away from drinking it. Fears surrounding public tap water is crucial to the profitability of water bottle companies (Opel, 1999). Likewise, tainted water issues such as seen in Flint, Michigan also doesn’t help the current popular trends for bottled water. Governments need transparency so the public can gain their trust again surrounding public water sources.

The public’s reliance on bottled water has to cease if we are to get the environmental impacts under control in the next century. Furthermore, the hypocrisy of the bottled water industry is such that half of all bottled water sold in the United States is actually filtered and treated municipal waters with no health benefits over tap water save for a few minerals added in. “A number of scientific studies indicate that despite some differences in mineral content, there is little difference in actual health benefits derived from bottled and tap water, as well as little difference between waters of individual brands” (Crook et al, 2009, p. 12). What’s worse is that “an estimated 40 percent of the world’s citizens do not have dependable access to potable water supplies” (Jaffe & Newman, 2013, p. 6) and large corporations such as PepsiCo, Coca Cola and Nestle extract groundwater at pennies on the dollar to filter, bottle and sell for massive profits, while the communities surrounding their extraction plants suffer greatly (Jaffe & Newman, 2013) and are forced to pay these companies for bottled water. Clever and manipulative advertising campaigns along with erosion in the lack of transparency in government agencies has overtly denigrated the drinking of tap water, thus having played a key role in altering public perception and behavior that has led to a culture of overconsumption of bottled water.

The surge in water bottle consumption has generated an industry that has an international global reach. According to data compiled at the Business Research Company, “...the global bottled water market was valued at around $238 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $349 billion in 2021... In terms of volume, the market is estimated at 437 billion liters in 2017 and is expected to reach 623 billion liters in 2021...” Business Research Company (http://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com). While profits have reached stratosphere levels for companies that produce bottled water, the deleterious implication to the environment is often overlooked by consumers. The environmental impact of bottled water is substantial. “It’s production and distribution consume between 1000 and 2000 times more energy per unit volume than local tap water, and U.S bottled water consumption [alone] requires the energy equivalent of between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil per year (Jaffe & Newman, 2013, p. 10). The extraction of groundwater itself also impacts springs, rivers, local ecosystems, agriculture and wells. The environmental costs also include manufacturing and disposal (millions of plastic bottles wash up on shores and the plastic leaches into oceans, harming sea life), transportation of the water across nations, and the maintenance of refrigeration units that are needed for storage of bottles (Opel, 1999). And while companies have received backlash from citizen scientists and environmentalist alike, the consumption continues because the consumer often lacks the knowledge to know what these impacts are to the environment. For this reason, many companies are implementing mitigative approaches for the environmental impacts as another way to brand and sell their products to the more environmentally conscious consumer and perhaps to raise awareness, though the latter remains to be seen. This is called ‘environmental branding’.

Fiji Water is an example of this form of branding and more sustainable approach to their business model. In 2009 Fiji Water joined the 1% for the Planet initiative, whereby they donate 1% of their sales to a “global network of organizations committed to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment” (Roll, 2018). Through their efforts, Fiji Water supports environmental causes in Fiji, U.S. and other parts of the world. Another partnership that Fiji Water has as part of their conservation efforts is with a leading environmental organization called Conservation International (CI). With CI, Fiji Water works to preserve the purity and biological wealth of the Fijian Islands (Roll, 2018). There are many companies taking this environmental branding approach as of late due to the enormous impact that bottled water has on the environment. However, one must question if the changes being sought and implemented are merely due to the fact that the water bottle boom has grown to become the primary source of environmental criticism for the bottle industry (Crook et al, 2009).

Bottled water is perhaps one of those few commodities where the power of advertising/branding is most exceptional. The promotional promise of curative abilities, a liquid that improves our skin or flushes away our fat and aids in weight loss, is remarkably enticing to the consumer, so much so that we’ll spend thousands of dollars in our lifetime to consume a commodity that is readily available in our kitchens. Companies selling bottled water justify, fuel and capitalize on those hopes using clever advertising and branding, driving the need for consumption further. It is the greatest deception humans have been duped into believing and has one of the most detrimental impacts on our planet, despite recycling efforts. To fuel this fire, the fear campaign that public water is unsafe to drink along with catastrophes like Flint, Michigan only adds to erode public trust in municipal water sources. Water is so ubiquitous and despite the appalling environmental impact, the sale of it continues to endure because no one is advertising the idea that tap water has the same power to hydrate and nourish.

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