Althouse: "We believe bottled water has become less about the physical act of hydration and more about being a companion to people."

May 27, 2007

"We believe bottled water has become less about the physical act of hydration and more about being a companion to people."

"They like to walk around with it and hold it."

11 comments:

Bob said...: Bottled water as fetish item?; 5/27/07, 8:25 AM
Peter Hoh said...: I'll admit that I have bought bottled water just for the optical qualities of the bottle. I teach classes about optics, so do I get a pass? To my defense, I'll add that I have passed over some interesting bottles just because they were too pricey.; 5/27/07, 10:10 AM
JorgXMcKie said...: I have to laugh at the bottled water drinkers, because my son works in a plant that bottles an enormous amount of water that gets sold under a wide variety of names (some of them premium) at a variety of costs, and it's all the same water. Also, the water, while of very good quality *as* water if pretty much municipally treated water in essence.

They use spring fed water that is filtered through about a gazillion tons of limestone before it gets to the plant, but there it has to be treated pretty much the same as in any water department, minus the chlorine (I think) and the fluorine (I know for sure). It's beginning to look like the John Bircher anti-fluoride types (Remember Gen. Jack D. Ripper?) won.; 5/27/07, 1:24 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/21/FDGU1OMMT61.DTL; 5/27/07, 3:03 PM
Gordon Freece said...: I used to walk around holding it, but I kept getting arrested for indecent exposure.; 5/27/07, 3:45 PM
amba said...: It's just like a baby bottle for adults. I used to watch all these narcissistic health club types nursing themselves and it made me gag. I thought of them as "yoga mopes." They'd come in early and put down their mats in the most advantageous place and sort of arrange and caress themselves and take a suckle on their pacifier, "taking care of themselves."; 5/27/07, 3:58 PM
Galvanized said...: Seeing it as a security blanket is pretty accurate -- kind of like a lip balm addiction!

But I think that it's two-fold, as I think that it's for the image-conscious, too. It’s been driving me nuts to watch this waste for years, and by smart and otherwise thrifty people. It’s like carrying around proof that you make too much money or something, so it’s been part of a successful image. I understand that appeal in our very vain culture.

But it has also been evidence of our laziness in opting to simply buy water when we’re out – and in a pretty packaging, too — instead of exercising discipline to refill it ourselves at home.

To me, bottled water has been the cultural icon of America’s rash consumerism for years now.; 5/27/07, 10:04 PM
David53 said...: Purity Of essence.; 5/27/07, 11:12 PM
fanofalthouse said...: I only buy a bottle of water for two reasons:

1) It doesn't taste like chlorine or fluorine.

2) It's brand name implies it'll do something I know it won't. Example: Smart Water; 5/28/07, 6:12 AM
Drew W said...: If you changed "hydration" in that statement to "communication," I think that would explain a lot about cell phone usage.; 5/28/07, 7:21 AM
Galvanized said...: So true, Drew W. I think cell phones serve the same purpose.; 5/28/07, 12:02 PM