Bottled Water: The Marketing Trick of the Century (Upper-Intermediate ESL Lesson Plan)

Reading: The Marketing Trick of the Century

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What do North Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Western Europeans pay up to 10,000 times the price for even though it’s available for free? The answer is bottled water, and the success of this $13-billion-dollar industry (in the U.S.) is what some people call the marketing trick of the century.

From a marketing perspective, bottled water giants such as Coke and Pepsi have taken advantage of people’s desire to live healthier with slogans such as ‘hydration is healthy’ (Dasani) or ‘a naturally pure and mineral-balanced water supports your body’s youth’ (Evian). These slogans are often accompanied by images of glaciers that give consumers the idea the water is taken fresh from a mountaintop.

The truth is that nearly half of bottled water in the US, Canada, and U.K., is just treated tap water from municipal sources. This message, originally hidden, can now be seen in the small print on bottles since companies are now required by law to reveal it.

If it is ‘treated’ tap water though, doesn’t this mean it’s better? Not really, according to a 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group that found that bottled water had the same level of contaminants as tap water. Also, in the U.S, U.K, and Canada, tap water has stricter health standards than those imposed on bottled water manufacturers, suggesting bottled water may be even unhealthier. Lastly, regarding taste, countless blind taste tastes (one conducted by the New York Times) have shown that tap water was equal or better tasting to consumers.

The victim of the bottled water industry is not only the consumer. The majority of the 3 million tons of plastic used yearly worldwide ends up in garbage dumps or the ocean. Additionally, it takes 3 litres of water to package one bottle, which can take 700 years to begin to decompose.

What’s more ridiculous, consumers are paying high prices for a product that, being municipal water, they have already paid for with their own tax money. The resource is also unbelievably cheap. For example, the province of British Columbia only charges companies $2.50 for every 1 million litres of water. Considering a single bottle of water is sold for approximately the same price, it’s no wonder giant corporations like Nestle are eager to tap into this profitable market.

[Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-reason-we-buy-bottled-water-2016-2, http://observer.com/2015/05/which-was-the-best-and-most-successful-marketing-campaign-in-history/, http://theconversation.com/bottled-water-is-the-marketing-trick-of-the-century-25842, http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Bottled_Water_Waste_Facts]