Bottled Water Babies [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
Bottled water is a $10 billion industry, but companies are "determined to push ... into new demographics," by "distilling products aimed at children," reports Bo Emerson. "The multimillion-dollar marketing campaign includes animated ads on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and broadcast TV that features kids triumphing over boring parents with the help of the bulbous (Nestle [3]-brand) bottle. ... Karen Bennett of Atlanta, who tested the product for word-of-mouth [4] public relations firm BzzAgent, thought the idea was dumb. 'I'm not going to buy water bottles that don't fit in my cup holders,' was her initial reaction. Then her 10-year-old took to it like a duck to" ... well, you know. Another example of "water as an innovation platform" -- as Beverage Marketing Corp.'s Gary Hemphill described it -- is "a pre-sealed disposable ice tray filled with purified water." The expanding market for bottled water [5] products is mystifying, since a four-year study by Natural Resources Defense Council [6] "resolved that bottled water was no purer than tap."