M5.5 Blog: Campaign for Tap Water

Campaign for Tap Water

Blog about: If you were to develop a nationwide campaign to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, what would be your campaign slogan?

My campaign slogan would read:  Team tap water: Refills, not landfills.

If I were to create a campaign slogan to get people to drink tap water instead of bottled water, I would focus on the benefits of tap water and highlight how unnecessary bottled water actually is. The bottled water industry (Industry) has created a manufactured demand for their product. They have accomplished this is by scaring the public into believing that tap water is not safe, and if the public wants to drink safe clean water, then bottled water is their only option. In reality, tap water is better regulated than bottled water. The Industry has also seduced the public into drinking bottled water by hiding their image behind a fantasy. For example, Fiji Water, whose slogan is “Earth’s finest water,” sells their product by making people think that their water is exotic. Additionally, the Industry has misled the public by making us think that they are environmentally responsible, when in fact the Industry is environmentally irresponsible. Each year the production of plastic bottles, used to bottle the water, consumes enough oil and energy to fuel the equivalent of one million cars; even more is used to ship the bottled water around the world.

Tap water on the other hand often tastes much better than bottled water. The City of Cleveland, Ohio (City) proved this after Fiji brand water advertised that their bottled water tasted better than the City’s. In response, the City conducted taste tests of their tap water against Fiji’s bottled water, and the results showed that people far preferred the City’s tap water. Additionally, bottled water is much more expensive, and costs 2,000 times more than tap water. It does not make sense for people to pay excessively for something that they already have available in their homes. In the end, tap water is more sustainable, tastier, and far cheaper than bottled water. For all of these reasons, people should make tap water their drink of choice, and skip the bottled water all together.