Tag Archive for: bottled water

Evian, The New Fountain of Youth

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Tough times in the bottled water business call for tough tactics–like selling the age-old quest for eternal youth. Evian’s new ad campaign tells us to “live young (TM)!” Who knew that the mythical Fountain of Youth, that legendary spring that restores youth to those who drink from it, was right there on my grocer’s shelf all along! I thought Evian water was expensive, but compared to botox, plastic surgery or Satan-soul-selling, it’s a live-young (TM) bargain!

This new fountain of youth reveals itself in the form of jaunty hip-hoppin’ roller-skating babies. I still refuse to buy the stuff but let’s be honest, these wee-ones on wheels are irresistably, adorably funny.

 

Where’s the breathless press release, you ask? Why, it’s here, informing us that stunt-skating tots are “the ultimate expression of Evian brand values, including origin, health and youth.”

And it gets better!

“To Evian, youth is not a matter of age, but a mindset – a youthful mindset that is optimistic, believes that everything is possible, and is curious and eager to discover the world – much like that of a child,” stated Jerome Goure, vice president of marketing for Danone Waters of America, the exclusive importer and marketer of Evian in North America.  “The babies in this campaign exemplify this attitude and the celebration of adding life to your years.”

Man and Beast are Crazy with Heat

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They say heat can drive man and beast crazy. We’ve got our heat and water worries in this ‘burb, but as of now we don’t have to worry that a steamy hippo might get stuck on our water tower, or that a survivalist pig hops into our pool.

From katv.com, Little Rock, news of a pool party with ham dip! (All actual photos under the close guard of the Associated Press.)

A swimming pig NOT from the Associated Press

An 800-pound hog that survived on its own for a week after a truck flipped while on its way to a slaughterhouse has surfaced in a swimming pool at a home near the crash site.

LeAnn Baldy, whose house is only yards from Interstate 430, said Monday she noticed her pool was suddenly overflowing and then saw the immersed pig, which was having a drink in the pool.

About 90 hogs were in the trailer when it overturned where I-430 meets I-40, and about 60 survived. Officials said they thought the last of them had been caught.

Baldy says she found a farmer to take in the pig. A spokesman for Odom’s Tennessee Pride says it can’t use the hog in its sausage products because no one knows what the hog had been eating in its week on the lam.

You know we watch out for what’s hot and hip. This covers the best of both worlds! From a story and photo gallery on metro.co.uk,  

An overheating hippo was so desperate to cool down that he climbed over the side of a 3m (10ft) water tower for a nice long soak.
However, after happily splashing around for a while, the mammal found it could not get out of the pool and was well and truly stuck.
Luckily, a farm worker noticed water spilling over the side of the concrete container and spotted two enormous nostrils poking out of the tank. He immediately rang for help and, within hours, rescuers arrived at the farm in Alkmaar, just outside Nelspruit in South Africa.

Equipped with a hydraulic crane and a cage, hippo hunter Chris Hobkirk and his team from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Association set to work. In a four-hour operation, they drained the tank and used poles to gently nudge the hippo into the 3m-long (10ft) steel cage before winching it to safety. 

The Arranged Marriage of Trash and Treasure

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We were smitten when we posted Rod Pujante’s handcrafted blooms last year made from discarded water bottles and just KNEW that some discerning green-style setters would see the high-trashion potential.

Frances Baszta, Angela Blann and Dena Buzalas, the “B team” as I like to call them, shared these photos from a recent event they planned using Rod’s creations as showstopping centerpieces uplit with tiny LED lights.

Each guest was invited to take one home to, as their program states, “remind each of us to both avoid activities that create unnecessary waste, and to see beautiful new possibilities in recycling and re-use.” Which one guest really took to heart–after seeing them at this event, he’s pursuing something similar for his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

Now obviously, this sort of thing does nothing to seriously impact the huge tide of trash caused by bottled water; it does, though, help us keep the issue top of mind, not to mention put a little delight in our day. Hmmm, does anyone know the water impact of cut flowers?

L’Desh Fresh: Gag Me, Really!

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We’ve posted before about the pluses of “Going Gross” to grab attention with yuck appeal, and here’s a “fresh’ new one right from my Kansas City backyard. This campaign from Water Partners International, based in Kansas City, aims to get clean water flowing to the neediest by convincing you to loosen the nauseating grip on your wallet.

L’Desh Fresh is splashed onto our radar with a slick flash website, just like the pricey premium brands… but we can see there’s something unclear about it’s appeal. (I must admit it took me several passes to “get it” — Bang-L’-Desh…get it?)

And direct from the planet Ikea comes The L’Desh Fresh video, where our spokesmodel manages to take a swig of “the world’s water” while maintaining her composed on-camera professional demeanor.

We imagine her multiple cell phone calls after the shoot: “Well sure I’m, like, DYING to be a model-slash-actress, but, GAG ME, really! I mean I am SO NOT JOKING, I’m honestly gagging RIGHT NOW! Did Heidi Klum have to do this? I don’t THINK so!”

So here are a load of related links: Water Partners International on Facebook, L’Desh Fresh on Wikipedia, An article on L’Desh Fresh from KC alt weekly The Pitch, L’Desh Fresh on MySpace, Water Partners International on Twitter, and Kansas City Ad Agency Sullivan, Higdon & Sink. Whew, that should ’bout cover the social mediasphere.

Or just skip all that and pony up a donation here, while you gag and ponder the millions worldwide who actually drink similar stuff every day with a straight face.

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Secret Water Ingredients?

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You might think that the ingredients for water are known, but this bottled water spotted in Singapore – Secret Recipe – promises something more mysterious in addition to the standard hydrogen and oxygen (although I think most people prefer their drinking water WITHOUT secret ingredients of any kind!)

Look again- check out the “Secret Recipe” co-posting over at www.siwwdiary.com, a live blog from the 2009 Singapore International Water Week (June 22-25). Yours-truly and some colleagues will be posting a variety of information from the ground*, ranging from light and amusing tidbits to technical information and water industry news.
*A virtual US presence for me, though… Boo hoo!

Thanks to Yvonne Lim for the photo – visit her blog for tons of other interesting photos from around Singapore, especially of restaurants and fantastic food!)

Lost in the Plastic Forest

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The recent Figment 2009 event, held June 12-14 at Governors Island in New York, is described as “a FREE, annual celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible.”

One possiblity realized was “Watershed” an eco-installation from MSLK that ties together, literally, the many senseless aspects of bottled water consumption in the West. From the Figment 2009 website,

“Watershed” is a man-made forest of 1,500 plastic water bottles collected from the New York City area, which serves as a visual representation of one second of U.S. consumption. Out of the 50 billion bottles of water consumed each year, 80% of these bottles are currently not being recycled. Bottled water is 1,900 times more expensive than tap water, and the toxins emitted by it have been linked to serious health problems, such as reproductive issues and cancers. “Watershed” was created with the hope that viewers will shed the notion that they need to buy water in plastic bottles. If we are looking to better the environment, water is a great place to start, since we have the best quality water coming out of our taps.

 
Photos by Katie Killary on Flickr

If you’re wondering who threaded and hung all those bottles, MSLK’s website features a prequel to the main event with a video that documents the nuts and bolts of building “Watershed.”   

Watershed Assembly at MSLK 5/24/09 from MSLK on Vimeo.

Busted: Felony Possession of Water

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Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, weapons, a-OK, proceed ahead. Water? Contraband, you’re busted! We’re no fan of bottled water, but is it really this high up on the sin and shame-scale these days?

Kansas City’s ROCKFEST, supposedly the biggest one-day rock music festival in the country, took over the town last month, and some commenters at KC’s premier rock blog, BacktoRockville, describe just how criminal bottled water has become:
Photo: Jill Toyoshiba/The Star via backtorockville.typepad.com

Photo: Jill Toyoshiba/The Star via backtorockville.typepad.com

Rockfest is a bizarre event. Here are some of my observations: I saw a lady forced to pour out a 30 oz bottle of water, but inside, I saw open drug use from pot, to crack, to cocaine. How people can be padded down for water but keep the illegal drugs tells you something immediately. The performers literally encourage the drug use, screaming from the stage how great (the pot) smelled. I personally had no problem getting into Rockfest with a large pocket knife that I literally forgot was in the pocket of my cargo shorts, but had to hand over my opened bottle of water in case it had booze in it… And to the organizers of ROCKFEST….dudes….come on…..while you are focusing on keeping people from carrying too much water in, people are easily taking everything else in there under the sun! (original comment here.)

While another commentor noted,

The much hyped watering stations for refilling bottles? I saw only one.

And here’s proof that it’s not an isolated podunk Midwestern incident, but a cresting global trend! Via www.telegraph.co.uk.,

Photo: CATERS via telegraph.co.uk

(London, June 11) A plane passenger was able to take a six-inch serrated knife past airport security but was stopped before boarding for carrying a bottle of water.

Adrian Elvy, who was flying from Bristol to Barcelona and owns a stock delivery company, said he forgot to take care of the knife, which he uses to open boxes in his warehouse, while packing. The 39-year-old revealed he was stopped by authorities after they saw a bottle of water in his bag and missed the knife, which features a serrated edge and a separate three-inch ’spike’ for loosening sailing knots.

Astronaut Water: There Are No New Ideas

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I’m coming to believe that there really are no new ideas! After our flash of Tang-inspiried brilliance regarding astronaut-branded recycled water, Kerry Freek (@CanadianWater on Twitter), Managing Editor of the excellent trade magazine Canadian Water Treatment, pointed us to this gem!

So it appears that Canada Dry Corp. has long ago been-there, done-that with astronaut-branded water, although we wonder if they stole the idea from Tang or visa-versa! (From a post on boxvox.net, where you can see other interesting vintage space-themed bottles. This photo is from theimaginaryworld.com)

That quote we led with? The full quotation is actually, “There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” (Audre Lorde)

On that note, I give you another photo from my files, more evidence that China is surpassing the West, this time with…you guessed it, astronaut water!

 

Bottled Water, Same Old Story

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Back we go, more than a century, to this nostalgic photo of the Italian Festa, Mott Street, New York City, May 16th, 1908.

It’s fun to zoom in and study the details. And what’s that there to the right? Why, it’s our turn-of-the-century bottled water vendor, probably ready to serve up better-than-tap refreshment to festival-goers. Just like today! (Though we’d never criticize the 1908 populace for partaking… no one’s nostalgic for the tap water back then!) Note the handy bottle supply, hygienically stored on the open-air wagon top!

The orginal photo is a 5×7 glass negative from the George Grantham Bain Collection, via Shorpy. (Here, you can view this image in high-resolution and take in many more of the Roosevelt-era details.)

I was unable to resist the urge to annotate in some way, soooo..

Feed Me Your PETs

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Here’s a refuse container that’s happy to assist you with recycling your refuse, doing it’s dirty job with a determined smile. Made me smile, too.

(Spotted and photographed by Virginia Leonard, Thirsty in Suburbia intern, while visiting the St. Louis Botanical Gardents in Missouri.)