Tag Archive for: bottled water

Water Nonsense into Water Good Sense

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Can an offensive, stupid ad campaign spark positive action and good deeds? Yes indeed, it’s all in a day’s work here in water blog-land. I recently posted this entry on WAT-AAH!, a bottled water brand aimed at brainless parents and their spoiled-senseless kids. Aquadoc at WaterWired picked up on the entry but with an important addition that I missed:

Sure, it’s better than caffeine-spiked, sugar-laden soda, but then again, 5W-30 motor oil is probably better, too. How about good ol’ tap water? … [snip] … give the money you save to a worthwhile cause like Peter Boddie’s The Kasiki Project.

http://www.kasiki.org/

http://www.kasiki.org/

WAT-AAH good idea! I’ve made a donation today, because it’s a wonderful cause AND it makes me feel like there’s at least one blessed reason for the despised WAT-TAH!!! to exist. Wouldn’t that make you feel good, too? Yes? So, go do it!

WAT-AAH Crock! Parents Completely Abandon Parenting

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We’re not into the rant-and-complain blog style around here, but this has got to be among the most annoying, grating campaigns and product positionings I’ve ever seen.

The ridiculously-named company Let Water Be Water, LLC is responsible for,

WAT-AAH!, the first sugar-free, functional water brand made specifically for kids by kids and their mothers.

Which is a contender for the single most preposterous statement in the history of PR flackery. (Thanks, fathers, for not participating in this.)

And if that’s not low enough, they shamelessly announce in this press release their “New WAT-AAH! Challenge…”

…to defy the expectation that kids will pick soda or juice over water. During the month of March, mothers who participate in the challenge will receive WAT-AAH! samples with instructions to put the bottled water in their fridge, alongside sodas and other sugary drinks. Mothers will be asked to write, photograph and videotape their kids’ responses and reactions to WAT-AAH!. “Challenge” participants and ongoing results are available at www.wat-aahchallenge.blogspot.com.
“We want to challenge the preconceived notions people have about kids and drinks,” says WAT-AAH!’s founder, Rose Cameron. “Our goal is to test the assumption that kids are addicted to sugar and think water is boring. We are confident that children will pick WAT-AAH! over the big guys with multi-million dollar beverage budgets and logos that believe they are ‘cool,’ and we invite moms everywhere to participate in this challenge.”

So, set up the fridge like this, parents! The little ones will pick the water every time, you’ll see! (The only thing this promotion proves is the lengths some people will go to get some free bottled water.)

Had enough? No? If you’re masochistic or in extreme-procrastination mode, you can visit their screechingly-bad website, filled with fingernails-on-the-blackboard declarations like “Be Supaah! Jump Highaah! Be Smart-aah!”

If all this fails, modern parents, try my method (with your kids’ permission, of course.) It’s been successfully road-tested on my three children and millions of others: “Soda? NO WAY-AHH. Here’s your tap WAT-AHH.”

Smoke on the Water

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High praise for this creative packaging! I regret that I am unable to translate the Chinese label for you, as you’re likely as curious as I am about the production details for this bottled water, including any possible additives! From the Flickr photostream of The Study Abroad Experience… and what a colorful cultural collage of an education it must have been!

Hello, Kitty – My, How You’ve Grown!

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Two Japanese favorites–Hello Kitty and bottled water–combine in a tacky package that’s sure to appeal to pre-teens and pervs alike. From the set Japan 2009 by Erika Ray on Flickr.

Look Closely: Water Transport is Booming

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Boston.com’s “The Big Picture” has gained a devoted following for its dramatic, superb photography presented thematically, somewhat like a digital version of the much-missed Life magazine. The Big Picture feature on Robots included this photo by Cherie A. Thurlby for the Department of Defense. The photo depicts,

“An Explosive Ordinance Disposal robot places an explosive device next to a suspicious package during a demonstration conducted by members of the Special Operations Command Central Command Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit for participants of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 72, at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, Oct. 21, 2006.”

But wait a minute, we’re having a closer look at that “suspicious package” and of course we notice something of particular interest to us…that Emirates bottled water must be da bomb! (I should mention that you’ll never have to call a bomb squad to detonate your tap. At least I hope not.)

It’s Spring, and Water Marketers Send Their Love

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We might love our tap water, but that’s not to stop or slow the relentless bottled water branders from absconding with the power of love to move the water and the wallets.

While I was in California in January, I picked up this interesting number in a organic food store near Carmel. The brand is “Aquamantra” (here, in the convenient “Mini-Mantra” size) and the concept seems to involve invoking positive self-talk while drinking the water for a spiritually uplifting experience. And a solitary experience, too, given the high probability for public ridicule. (It’s water for Stuart Smalley! “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, I am Loved! glug glug.”)

If that’s too intense for you, just go for this straight-up approach that bridges the language barrier with the language of love, seen in Vietnam and shared by silveroses69 on Flickr. Lovely!

Attention Conspiracy Theorists: NASA Water Recycling

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Ordinarily, I’d post this photo of Vietnamese bottled water “purified by NASA’s award-winning technology” strictly for our amusement. (from the Picasa Web Album Hoi An, Vietnam by Mark)

But it reminds us of something we read on Engadget in the summer of 2007:

NASA drops $19m on Russian toilets
for American asstronauts [sic]

Super-good pun headline notwithstanding, our radar is up. NASA…millions of dollars…Russians…mysterious bottled water in a deprived country with scant government oversight of foodstuffs… Coincidence? Judge for yourself, but I am adjusting my tinfoil chapeau.

The July, 2007 Engadget story notes:

So apparently NASA has agreed to purchase toilet technology from the Russian company RSC Energia for the tidy sum of $19 million, to be delivered to the ISS in 2008 in preparation for a crew upsizing from three to six members. The previous system required that urine tanks be transferred to cargo ships and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere, but the new toilets operate like a waste treatment center on Earth, collecting and reconstituting urine as drinking water — an unpleasant concept for a number of our readers, but a welcome relief for thirsty astronauts. The toilets are similar to normal models, though they employ leg restraints and thigh bars to hold the “user” in place, and high-powered fans to suck, um… waste into the commode. The system will be installed on the American side of the station, while the Russian-side will remain as is, resulting in extremely long lines to use the “good” bathroom.

The Perversion of Bottled Water

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The amazing Yellow Surprise motivated me to begin this blog and I believed that it (along with ASS) would reign supreme in funny-water brand-land forever. Never say never. Yellow Surprise and ASS, meet the challenger, Golden Stream.

Eternal thanks to bikespod on Flickr for sharing this memory of his trip to Varkala, a coastal town on the Southern tip of India.

In the Future, Business Leaders will be Closely Supervised

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I rarely read or write fiction. Why bother, when the real world produces rich stories like this, my nomination for best punch line in a news story in 2009. From News 10 in Rochester, New York,

It was a school fundraiser that some parents say went to the extreme. Drinking fountains at Canandaigua Academy were turned off during a school dance and students were told they had to pay for bottled water.

About 300 students attended that dance on Saturday. It was sponsored by a school club, the Future Business Leaders of America. The district says they were selling tickets to the dance and water to raise money for club activities.

The group asked for and received permission through a building use request form to shut off the two water fountains where the dance was being held. Once they were turned off, signs were posted on them directing students to a table where the club was selling bottled water for one dollar each.

The rest of the story is here, proving we still need much education on the evils of bottled water AND ethics.