Diversity: Tap or Bottle? Your Skin Color May Tell the Answer

Tap or Bottle? Your Skin Color May Tell the Answer

In the years since major brands like Coca-Cola and Nestle first decided to bottle and sell water, a mostly-free and vital resource, marketing tactics have gone from convincing consumers that “it tastes better” to “it’s healthier” to “it will improve your life.”

Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary on all three counts – including that “municipal tap water is the source for 47.8% of bottled water” – big brands continue to up their game and push their campaigns. That’s not really news, except that, according to a recent study, Black and Latino parents are three times more likely than white parents to buy bottled water for their children.

Taking into consideration that the National Resources Defense Council found unsafe levels of bacteria in 17% of bottled water and chemical contamination in 22%, and the average price of a bottle water is about 500 times higher than filling a glass from the kitchen sink, don’t you wonder why more isn’t being done to market the truth to populations already suffering from huge health and economic disparities?