Bottled water comes from the tap

'Think Outside the Bottle' Campaign Challenges Pepsi at Annual Shareholders' Meeting
PLANO, Texas, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, corporate accountability
advocates are challenging Pepsi executives at the corporation's annual
shareholders' meeting. Corporate Accountability International's "Think
Outside the Bottle" campaign challenges the misleading marketing of the
three largest bottled water corporations -- Pepsi and its competitors Coke
and Nestle. Through extensive media coverage in national and major regional
outlets, the campaign message has reached millions of people in the past
six weeks as over one thousand people in twenty cities across the U.S. have
taken the Tap Water Challenge. As Pepsi attempts to compensate for weak
soft drink sales by expanding its bottled water market, the corporation
faces growing resistance.
Across the U.S., people have been shocked to learn Pepsi's popular
Aquafina water brand actually uses tap water as its source. Avid Aquafina
drinkers are among the 50% of all Americans who drink bottled water. One in
six people in the U.S. drink only bottled water instead of drinking water
from the tap, even though gallon for gallon it can cost more than gasoline.
According to Corporate Accountability International, this trend is driven
by misleading advertising.
Protests at Coke's shareholders' meeting two weeks ago demonstrated
people's increasing concern about corporations buying and selling water.
"As global pressure on Coke grows we're highlighting that Pepsi is another
heavyweight player. Pepsi promotes Aquafina water as pure, safe, healthy
and superior to tap water, even though bottled water is less regulated than
tap water, and sometimes less safe," says Corporate Accountability
International Associate Campaigns Director Gigi Kellett.
"This is about more than price gouging. Our human right to water is at
stake," says Polaris Institute Water Program Director Karl Flecker.
According to the United Nations, two out of three people will not have
access to water in less than two decades. "Problems of water scarcity and
access loom larger as a profit-driven industry increasingly controls our
water supplies," continues Flecker.
Supplying water is currently a $400 billion a year business, 30% larger
than the pharmaceutical industry. "Think Outside the Bottle" highlights
bottled water as the most visible example of increasing corporate control
of water. Even though bottled water accounts for a fraction of the total
volume of water used for consumption, sanitation, and manufacturing, people
spent $100 billion on bottled water in 2005. That's three times more than
the amount of money necessary to reach the U.N.'s Millennium Development
Goal of halving the number of people without access to water by 2015, and
seven times more than the international community has committed to hitting
that goal.
Inside today's meeting, Pepsi executives are being challenged directly
for selling people a bill of goods, positioning bottled water as healthy,
when in reality it threatens people's health and the environment, and
undermines local democratic control over a common resource. Corporate
Accountability International is delivering thousands of postcards generated
from religious congregations, community activists and student groups over
the last several months.
Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a
membership organization that protects people by waging and winning
campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around
the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations-like Nestle,
General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria-to stop abusive actions. For more
information visit http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org.


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