2008 Woodie Awards
op-ed: Bottled water is bottled worthless
Daniel Streitfeld
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Opinions
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Reading the letters page in the Campus last week, I was slightly bemused to see two consecutive letters by unfamiliar men named Brian Flaherty and Kevin Keane. If you're desperately trying to remember if those are the two stoners from your French Lit class, I assure you they are not. They are not students at all (nor alumni, faculty or staff) but are representatives of Nestle Waters North America and the American Beverage Association, respectively.
They both published presumably prepackaged statements ('press releases' would be a more appropriate term) in response to Rachael Jennings's Oct. 18 piece about the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, an effort spearheaded by senior Jen Foth to reduce the use of bottled water on campus.
I suspect from the fact that no specific references whatsoever were made to the arguments of Jennings's piece that neither of the men even bothered to read the article, much less get to the bottom of the issues it discussed. In all honesty, while reading the letters I was reminded of the hilarious cinematic satire "Thank You for Smoking" and the sleaze-bag publicist characters from the tobacco, cigarette and alcohol industries.
Unfortunately in this case, though, the two men are not actors, but paid representatives from the beverage industry - paid, meaning that their very livelihoods depend on the success or failure of bottled water in America. This fact made me very a priori suspicious of their intents - after all, if we as a college (or society at large) are trying to make a decision that affects all of us, why would we put much emphasis on the highly biased opinions of two intensely affected players?
Still, though, I decided it was only fair to actually read the letters, off-put as I was by the 'so-unfunny-you-make-Bob-Saget-sound-funny' opening line of Mr. Keane's letter - "[t]he recent backlash against bottled water simply doesn't hold water"-har har!
Both men rave about the environmental steps that the industry has taken as of late - developing "Eco-Shape" (less material intensive) bottles, increasing recycling and becoming more energy efficient. While I don't doubt any of these advances, the fundamental point is that bottled water usage comes down to a question of priorities.
They both published presumably prepackaged statements ('press releases' would be a more appropriate term) in response to Rachael Jennings's Oct. 18 piece about the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, an effort spearheaded by senior Jen Foth to reduce the use of bottled water on campus.
I suspect from the fact that no specific references whatsoever were made to the arguments of Jennings's piece that neither of the men even bothered to read the article, much less get to the bottom of the issues it discussed. In all honesty, while reading the letters I was reminded of the hilarious cinematic satire "Thank You for Smoking" and the sleaze-bag publicist characters from the tobacco, cigarette and alcohol industries.
Unfortunately in this case, though, the two men are not actors, but paid representatives from the beverage industry - paid, meaning that their very livelihoods depend on the success or failure of bottled water in America. This fact made me very a priori suspicious of their intents - after all, if we as a college (or society at large) are trying to make a decision that affects all of us, why would we put much emphasis on the highly biased opinions of two intensely affected players?
Still, though, I decided it was only fair to actually read the letters, off-put as I was by the 'so-unfunny-you-make-Bob-Saget-sound-funny' opening line of Mr. Keane's letter - "[t]he recent backlash against bottled water simply doesn't hold water"-har har!
Both men rave about the environmental steps that the industry has taken as of late - developing "Eco-Shape" (less material intensive) bottles, increasing recycling and becoming more energy efficient. While I don't doubt any of these advances, the fundamental point is that bottled water usage comes down to a question of priorities.
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