The International Bottled Water Association Releases Faux Grassroots Activist Video

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by Michael Parrish DuDell September 10, 2010
Categories: Eats, Video.

The problem with big lobbying groups trying to appear folksy is that it so rarely ever works. Case in point: The International Bottled Water Association’s super shady attempt to appear grassroots.

The International Bottled Water Association is the primary funder of a front group called Bottled Water Matters — a collation of  ”bottled water consumers a voice to share their ideas about bottled water safety, healthy beverage choices and commitment to recycling.”

A while back, the coalition began releasing YouTube videos staring a dullard of a girl who from here on out shall be referred to only as “Bottled Water Girl.” In her latest video, Bottled Water Girl gets down with her inner activist by taking to the streets and urging consumers to join the movement and fight those who wish to get rid of bottled water.

“There are people who want to take your choice away,” says Bottled Water Girl. “People who want bottled water off store shelves because they think it’s unnecessary. But you know that’s not true.”

Let’s not even talk about the fact that besides polluting the world in a big way, bottled water is often less regulated than tap and, when compared, consistently loses tastes tests. Check out the video below and tell us what you think about Bottled Water Girl and her brigade of corporate crusaders.

  • Sonia

    There’s an International Bottled Water Association? Seriously?

    Stupid bottled water.

  • http://www.beforewisdom.com beforewisdom

    From
    http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/water-bottle-pollution/

    In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufactueres use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.

    Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle.

    If you google or youtube on “bottled water” you will find many repetitions of lab tests that show that tap water is as safe as bottled water. In fact, many bottled waters are just municipal tap water filtered one more time and sold at astronomical markups.

    Aquafina & Dasani ( owned by pepsi and coke ) are bottled tap water. They sell for about $5 a gallon. Gas in my neighborhood is $2.71 a gallon. My tap water costs me 0.003 dollars per gallon, less than a penny. I run it through a Brita water pitcher that cost me less than $30 to get the same thing.

    Water was imported from Fiji to make “Fiji Water” when the island was in a drought.

    Bottled water companies are working towards privatizing access to water. Someday you will have to kiss the ring finger of the man if you want a drink of water if people keep paying for bottled water rather than getting the government to fix the municipal water infrastructure in the FEW places were tap water is not good.

    • Mike

      Thank you “beforewisdom”! An excellent response to this nonsense; obviously a corporate designed marketing scheme created to scam the non-critical thinking consumer sheep in America!

  • don miguelo

    Bottled water makes ya talk kinda funny.

    • Becca Snow

      How does drinking “bottled water make ya talk kinda funny?” Leaving a comment without much forethought comes out rather strange.

      I drank bottled water, but only in glass returnable bottles for 25 years because I was rightfully concerned about my tapped water, which contains low levels of arsenic, disinfection byproducts, and only God knows what else. So, I had my tap water tested, and yes there was arsenic and volatile organic compounds in the water. Is that a good reason for drinking bottled water?

      The problem is that the company from where I purchased my bottled water, receive their water from a spring which is fed by a shallow pond and then moves underground. It’s unknown how long it takes for any fall out from all the spraying of herbicide tolerant patented Genetically Modified Organisms in food crops to get into that surface water supply. But, surface water is the first to become contaminated by crop protection controls, formerly known as pesticides. And, farmers are pressed to kill every single weed on their land. Plus, if the current weed killer no longer works, they are pressured to use more toxic weed killers. Guess where all that pollution goes?

      It runs off into surface waters, including lakes and ponds that feed the spring from where my bottled water may flow; it goes into the air and falls out with rain and snow, or dry precipitation; it drifts whichever way the wind blows and has been known to drift at least 6 miles in California, a state which measures and keeps data on this. It is the second most cause of illness to farm workers, and this is in addition to poisoning the air, soils, and waters, including bottled water.

      No longer does it make sense to me to buy bottled water. It makes more sense to buy a good activated carbon water filter to remove the volatile organic compounds from pesticides and industrial wastes from the tap water. Even with the changing of water filters and the purchase of the filter itself, it is less costly to my health and the environment than bottled water. This is especially true since the previous President George W. Bush de-regulated bottled water. The regulations on bottled water are less than tap water and often come from municipal water supplies tapping water from deep wells into the aquifers.

  • Stephanie

    I think there’s a time and place for everything. What about when lead poisons municipal pipe systems, a water main breaks or a natural disaster strikes and there’s no potable water? Who do we turn to then?

    We should all seek to conserve, but bottled water is an important industry to keep around, and at the forefront of “lightweighting” (using as little as possible) plastic in its packaging and promoting recycling. To be fair.

    • dennis

      buy a distiller but make sure it has a voc vent and a back up voc filter–it will give you the safe water you deserve. it’s what fema recomends. i got mine from pure water inc.

    • Becca Snow

      How do you know if lead from solder in the pipes leaches into the tap water? What is that same water is bottled and sold to the naive consumer, like yourself?

      There are less regulations on bottled water, which is regulated as a “food” by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), whereas water tapped from deep wells drilled by municipalities is regulated by more stringent regulations by the US EPA. These regulations give the public the right to know what regulated chemicals have been found in the tapped water. With bottled water companies that information is voluntary, not mandatory.

      Obviously, you are weighing one risk against another if there is a disaster like a water main breaking, a flood, hurricane, or other natural disaster that contaminates water with E-coli and other bacterium, and water is required for life. But, do you know where the bottled water that you purchase really comes from? That information was absent from labels with Bush and Cheney were in office. They gave the bottled water industry a break and wrote regulations that made it voluntary rather than mandatory. That water could come from a chemical plant for all consumers would know.

      A distiller reduces everything from the water including minerals which are beneficial to your health. Be certain you replenish those minerals through supplements, or you may not be on Earth in your current form very long. These are risks one takes when water is polluted.

      The same is true with Reverse Osmosis, which reduces many heavy metals like fluoride, which may be in both bottled water that comes from municipal water sources, as well as tapped water, and natural sources. It reduces arsenic, and other toxic metals. And, some Volatile Organic Compounds which are in crop “protection” controls may or may not be reduced.

      The problem is only one Reverse Osmosis water filter can remove almost everything and unless bottled water come from that source, it is no safer than what comes out of the tap. It is simply more expensive.

  • Becca Snow

    I thought I’d buy bottled water to avoid fluoride that my municipality is being forced to put into the water. But, the bottled water company also boasts that they have it in their water, which is naturally occurring.

    Now, I’m seriously looking into a Reverse Osmosis water filter to reduce the herbicide tolerant crops, the arsenic from past agricultural practices, and fluoride from industrial wastes which is put into all municipal water systems, including bottled water to reduce cavities and the costs to the fertilizer industry.

    This is because most bottled water comes from municipal water systems. Even with the high cost of Reverse Osmosis, it is less expensive than buying bottled water. And, while there is a vast waste of water, there is not vast waste of finite resources including fossil fuels, contaminated air, soils, waters. The plastic bottles are generally discarded as litter, or dicarded into the trash where they are dumped into landfills, which ultimately leak and contaminate groundwater from where bottled waters obtain their water. That water is also used to grow food, fill swimming pools, and bathe your children and veggies and fruit.

    Which costs more money and wastes the most resources?

  • http://www.bigrock.in domain registration

    Hey, thanks for sharing this article with us. The “International Bottled Water Association” is the primary funder of a front group called Bottled Water Matters. Keep posting.

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