Tide Turns Against Bottled Water

by lisa ~ August 13, 2009

Aug. 13, 2009 - Bottled water is finally falling out of fashion - a fact that owes more to the recession than reproachful environmental ad campaigns. For more than 20 years - since the aerobics craze of the 1980s - it’s been cool to tote disposable containers everywhere. Now there’s a dramatic shift underway that seeks to shame the makers of bottled water in the process.

The Washington Post reports today that water was, until 2008, our third favorite beverage behind soda (No. 1) and milk (No. 2). But per capita consumption of bottled water fell from 2007 to 2008. “Jeff Cioletti, editor in chief of trade publication Beverage World, said he doesn’t believe bottled water will return to galloping growth for a long while,” the WaPo said.

The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion page recently pointed out that disposable bottles “are seen as bad in every way, choking the rising oceans and poisoning our precious bodily fluids with leaching carcinogens (an idea promulgated by such august academic journals as the Proceedings of the Society of Anonymous Chain Emails).”

And The New York Times noted that some environmentalists are trying to make bottled water producers into the tobacco sellers of the 21st century. Tappening points out producers’ supposed mistruths. For example, the source of some water is municipal taps not pristine mountain springs.

Even if the U.S. experiences a dramatic economic recovery in the fourth quarter, it’s unlikely that sales of bottled water will surge. Americans will be watching their pennies for years to come - and that’s something that even the best PR shops won’t be able to overcome.

Lisa Tibbitts is a corporate communications professional with an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

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