Water advertising and sports…they’re still the perfect, hand-holding, snuggling couple at the promotion party!
This latest hookup involves the Olympics and Coca Cola’s Ice Dew (one of the leading bottled water brands in China) created by Bartle Bogle Hearty, Shanghai. The ad’s premise is that since humans are 60% water, Read more
For 2010, we’ve gone DIY! All these water-themed Halloween costumes are homemade. This year, use your skills, creativity and ingenuity to fashion a killer look and unforgetable water statement!
THIS IS MY DAM COSTUME THIS YEAR: Thirsty in Suburbia exclusive! I made this for myself on Cafepress…perfect thing for recession trick or treating around your local Hooverville. (While I was at it, I made a shop so you can get one, too! Yes, I know, it’s expensive…but who can put a price tag on this level of awesomeness? Check out the mug, too! http://www.cafepress.com/thirstyinsuburbia).
TOUGH YEAR FOR MERMAIDS: This costume won the 2008 Etsy Costume Contest in the Green catagory. Your 2010 interpretation could be even more timely with sad-funny BP references. Find a thrift shop prom dress and get busy! Great way to recycle that old motor oil. Source Link
In the current installment of Emily Green’s excellent regular feature “The Week that Was” at ChanceofRain.com, I read…
“It would be very interesting if we could drain the ocean and look at what’s down there.” – Holly Bamford, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program, “‘Ghost’ traps, long lost, keep catching lobsters,” AP / Denver Post, November 26, 2009
Before I reached the closing quote I was overwhelmed with a long-buried visual memory, as vivid today as it was more than forty years ago.
I MUST FIND IT. I purchased it for my children 20 years ago and it is here, somewhere in my house. So many books…so many neglected boxes, dusty shelves, stacks in the basement, the attic, unused closets. It took 2 days to find it, and what a joy it was to hold in my hands again and turn the pages.
Once upon a time there were five Chinese Brothers and they all looked exactly alike. They lived with their mother in a little house not far from the sea.
The first Chinese brother could swallow the sea.
He could swallow the sea! As a child, these pages captured my imagination many times over. How wonderful would it be if I could roam that seabed, seeing, touching and marveling at the sight of all the mysteries of the deep laid bare! Even today it is a powerful fantasy to ponder.
(In the book, this scene is a spread that looks like this:
If you are familiar with the book, you are likely smiling and fondly remembering the story. If this is new to you, l’ll avoid any spoilers and just say, “YOU MUST FIND IT.” (Try your local library or Amazon.com, $5.99)
The book was originally published in 1938 but since the 1970s has been removed from schools and classrooms due to criticism of alleged ethnic stereotyping. There are also plenty of defenders–including me and many others who understand the magic in a child’s (or adult’s) imagination, to “drain the ocean and look at what’s down there.”
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!
Looking for something unique and entertaining for today’s holiday family fun-day? We’re not convinced that this will be the newest hot trend in water sports, but it does look like fun. Gather up the kids, grab some fat bamboo poles and head out to the lake.
From Chinatoday, some photos of odd-sports enthusiasts performing “bamboo balance.”
For those who like the concept but seek more competitive thrills, how about “Bamboo Boat Racing, ” which involves racing a “boat” that’s a single cane of bamboo with a thin bamboo oar.
Villagers from Chishui, near Zuiyi city, came up with the idea, reports News Express. They make the boats out of locally grown bamboo and hold races on the Pinzhou River.
“Participants can sit or stand on the piece of bamboo, and with a thin bamboo oar, they race and compete at other tasks,” explained one villager.
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!
And as reclaimed and graywater systems become more than an oddity in the United States, we will be not wasting expensive potable water treatment for our loos, and we will be not needing these signs as we travel internationally.
petebrunelli on Flickr be sharing his photo taken in China.
With so many marketing short-cut brand extensions out there, extensions between bottled water and other estabished beverage brands is a natural, but Pabst Blue Ribbon water is a concept I can’t quite fathom. Flickr user oldtasty picked this one up in Jingdezhen, China and reports it’s “definitely better tasting than the beer from which the brand name was appropriated.”
Then, there’s Smirnoff Source. I’ll bet the concept looked white-hot on all the MBA’s powerpoints, but premium bottled water with alcohol never quite caught fire in the U.S. In the summer of 2007, celebs (like the oft intoxicated Paula Abdul) were seen swigging Smirnoff Source, a premium malt beverage with 3.5 percent alcohol. It was marketed as an ultra-premium alternative to light beer, which likely looked good on paper, but ultimately idiotic on TMZ.
Why bother when we already have alcoholic water–it’s called Vodka. Oddly enough, the satire about the product actually preceded the product itself. As seen two years ago at http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/01/09/ad-wizards-official-vodka-of-the-lohanvolution/