Snap! Water

It’s a rhyming thing, mostly driven by that last post and something I wanted to add. I mention that people have been giving me more and more grief over the years as bottled water became such an important thing to so many people – specifically about the fact that I prefer – or at least, have no problem with tap water. Clearly there is a reason that people are so against tap water. I think it’s pretty clear that the bottled beverage industry is telling us that our tap water is crap water. And that’s just not right.

In fact, about 12 years ago when I was working in advertising, I had a client that is one of the largest manufacturers of toothpaste, mouthwash, and related oral care products in the world. At that time they were sitting on multiple studies that showed tooth decay and oral health issues were on a steep rise in the US after decades of decline. The culprit named by all those studies?

Bottled water.

Yup. Most municipal water systems add, among other things, flouride into the water. Not in bottled water,  my friends. So… make sure you brush. A lot. And visit the dentist. A lot.

Tap Water

My new exercise watch today was a documentary on the bottled water industry called Tapped. While I have been known to choose bottled water over certain other beverage options, I have frequently been mocked and maligned by friends, acquaintances and strangers for being a tap water drinker first.

Watch this documentary and see who the real imbecile is. I actually have known for many years that nearly half of all bottled water in this country comes from municipal water systems. In other words, Coke and Pepsi run tap water through a glorified Brita filter and call it pure.

They even do it when the surrounding communities are experiencing droughts. Gotta love that. Take a walk through those lovely richmond doors in greater Raleigh or suburban Atlanta and you’ll fall in love with the dusty, scorched earth, while nasty old city folk are sucking down your life giving H20 at their overpriced health clubs.

PURE?!? Purified is not pure. If I bleach my toilet, it may be purified of germs, but I wouldn’t refer to it as a pure source of anything. Then again, I have an excellent well, so it might just be that my toilet water trumps Dasani and Aquafina in the race.

Somehow we’ve taken the most important building block of life and ruined it. We’ve made pure something artificial. It’s purificial.

I should trademark that. It’ll be the brand for my toilet water. I’ll put a mountain on the label. It’ll be so sweet.