Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation,
Speaker 1: bottled water was an eighteen point five billion dollar industry
Speaker 1: in the United States in seen and by volume. The
Speaker 1: bottled water industry grew by seven percent from six to seventeen,
Speaker 1: going from twelve point eight billion gallons to thirteen point
Speaker 1: seven billion gallons, helping bottled water surpass soda as Americans
Speaker 1: favorite drink. But just one hundred years ago, bottled water
Speaker 1: was hardly even a business. Water was just something we
Speaker 1: got from our taps. So how did we get here?
Speaker 1: How in the world did something we used to get
Speaker 1: ford seemingly free turn into a billion dollar industry. Like
Speaker 1: so many modern day products successes, marketing has played a
Speaker 1: huge role, but so have some other factors. Let's explore.
Speaker 1: Bottled water was a thriving industry early in United States history.
Speaker 1: There are records of it being sold in the u
Speaker 1: US as early as seventeen sixty seven, but business really
Speaker 1: started flowing at the beginning of the nineteenth century as
Speaker 1: dip mold glass technology made bottles more affordable and easier
Speaker 1: to mass produce. Back then, two types of customers drove
Speaker 1: bottled water sales, the rich and people who lived in cities.
Speaker 1: The wealthy took trips to spas and resorts built around
Speaker 1: natural springs, so mineral water bottled at the source was
Speaker 1: away for them to continue enjoying those supposed therapeutic benefits.
Speaker 1: Just for perspective, by eighteen fifty six, Saratoga Springs in
Speaker 1: New York was producing seven million bottles of water a
Speaker 1: year for the average city dweller. In the eighteenth and
Speaker 1: nineteenth centuries, bottled water was the safest drinking option because
Speaker 1: municipal water was often sickening. Literally, drinking bottled water helped
Speaker 1: people avoid diseases like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. By ninety
Speaker 1: most U S. Cities offered free, filtered chlorinated water, which
Speaker 1: dramatically improved public health. According to the National Bureau of
Speaker 1: Economic Research, of the decreases in depths in major cities
Speaker 1: was due to clean water. But what was a breakthrough
Speaker 1: for public health was also a blow to the bottled
Speaker 1: water industry. At the beginning of the twentieth century, with
Speaker 1: free and safe public water, the bottled water industry had
Speaker 1: adapted to markets it could serve primarily selling five gallon
Speaker 1: that's about nineteen liter bottles too large operations that needed
Speaker 1: water for employees. Even with mass produced glass, the bottles
Speaker 1: were heavy to ship, and that cost weighed down the
Speaker 1: bottled water business. The nineteen seventies and eighties were the
Speaker 1: real turning point for the new bottled water industry thanks
Speaker 1: to three major influences. First, that's when pet plastic bottles
Speaker 1: were patented. Unlike heavy glass, pet bottles could stand the
Speaker 1: pressure of carbonated drinks because they were lighter than glass.
Speaker 1: Pet bottles helped propel the bottled water industry forward. Second,
Speaker 1: these two decades are also when French sparkling water company
Speaker 1: perry A launched its aggressive marketing campaign to get Americans
Speaker 1: to spend money on water. In the seventies, perry A
Speaker 1: hired or sin Well to do voiceover for its TV ads,
Speaker 1: touting Perier as more quenching, more refreshing, and naturally sparkling
Speaker 1: from the center of the earth. Perrier also began sponsoring
Speaker 1: athletic events like the New York City Marathon to associate
Speaker 1: its water with fitness and health. By night, Perrier was
Speaker 1: predicting sales of seventy five million bottles that year alone.
Speaker 1: By the eighties, Perris ads used the tagline Earth's first
Speaker 1: soft drink. But the final push to bottled water came
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighties six, when the Environmental Protection Agency released
Speaker 1: a report showing tap water used by thirty six million
Speaker 1: Americans contained high levels of lead. Even though cities rushed
Speaker 1: to fix these problems after congressional investigations, the distrust of
Speaker 1: municipal water lingered, making the switch from public water to
Speaker 1: bottled water a permanent one for many families. So the
Speaker 1: health halo that has graced bottled water since ancient times
Speaker 1: largely explains our spending habits, even when what we're buying
Speaker 1: is simply filtered tap water, such as pepsicos off affina
Speaker 1: and Coca Cola's Desani. These ad campaigns around health, purity
Speaker 1: and youth work so well because they appeal to our
Speaker 1: desire for immortality. Researchers at the University of Waterloo conducted
Speaker 1: a study in that tested this terror management theory, the
Speaker 1: idea that much of our thinking and behavior is driven
Speaker 1: by our fear of death, even in things like buying
Speaker 1: bottled water. The results found that a fear of dying
Speaker 1: does play a role in why people buy bottled water
Speaker 1: even though they know it may not be better for
Speaker 1: them or good for the planet. Stephanie Cote, one of
Speaker 1: the researchers on the study, set in a statement, bottled
Speaker 1: water advertisements play on our greatest fears in two important ways.
Speaker 1: Our mortality fears make us want to avoid risks, and
Speaker 1: for many people, bottled water seems safer, somehow purer or controlled.
Speaker 1: The other psychological, but real aspect that drives people to
Speaker 1: spend money on bottled water is the continued lack of
Speaker 1: trust in the government to provide clean, safe drinking water
Speaker 1: and maintain water systems. Consider the people of Flint, Michigan,
Speaker 1: who have relied on bottled water through the contamination crisis
Speaker 1: that's lasted years there, as have the First Nations people
Speaker 1: in Canada, where water too reserves has been under drinking
Speaker 1: advisories since January. Attempts by the Trump administration to repeal
Speaker 1: the Federal Clean Water Rule have deepened public distrust. We
Speaker 1: spoke via email with Dr Peter H. Galek, President Emeritus
Speaker 1: and Chief Scientists at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development,
Speaker 1: Environment and Security. He said the use of bottled water
Speaker 1: in emergency situations is a perfectly good idea, but the
Speaker 1: challenge is rebuilding public trust after such emergencies so that
Speaker 1: private bottled water use can then be eliminated. Bottled water
Speaker 1: should never be a permanent solution to providing safe, affordable,
Speaker 1: reliable drinking water for people, also considering the environmental costs
Speaker 1: of bottled water a mass s which would help the planet.
Speaker 1: There is promise in campaigns that give people reusable bottles,
Speaker 1: laws that banned single use bottles, and the new incarnation
Speaker 1: of drinking fountains as bottle refillings nations, but the messages
Speaker 1: to change our habits need to match the power of
Speaker 1: those that drive sales of bottled water. Gleek explained. The
Speaker 1: other challenge, of course, is that private bottled water companies
Speaker 1: have large budgets for advertising their product, while municipal water
Speaker 1: agencies do not. This imbalance has produced a situation where
Speaker 1: it is easy to lose trust in a municipal water
Speaker 1: system and hard to regain it, even when the vast
Speaker 1: majority of our water systems are safe and far far
Speaker 1: cheaper than bottled water, and in places around the world
Speaker 1: where safe tap water isn't available. The answer is to
Speaker 1: make it available, not to give up and rely on
Speaker 1: costly private bottled water. Today's episode was written by Sean
Speaker 1: Chavis and produced by Tyler Clang. If you enjoy our
Speaker 1: show and want to support us directly, check out our
Speaker 1: online store at t public dot com, slash brain stuff,
Speaker 1: and of course, for more on this and other environmental topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com