Water Bottles

02004-09-11 | Uncategorized | 17 comments

The first case of water we received for our busses on this tour was Arrowhead. The fine print read Arrowhead is a division of Nestle.

Then we got a case of Ice Mountain from a spring in Michigan. The fine print read Ice Mountain is a division of Nestle.

Finally yesterday we received some Poland Springs water, which comes from a source in Maine. And what did the fine print reveal? You guessed it! Poland Springs is a division of Nestle

17 Comments

  1. Matt Callahan

    My daughter and I have a joke we share from your show in 2003. When I drink bottled water, I unscrew the cap to drink, I never use the pop up caps. During your show, when you took your drink you removed the cap instead of using the pop up. My daughter leaned over and whispered “Dad, he drinks his water just like you”.

    Of course now she does the same. When ever we catch each other removing the cap, we say that the other is “drinking like Ottmar”.

    Reply
  2. Carol

    I learn so much from you. I knew they had the chocolate business licked in the USA, but I can see they’re swallowing all the water too. I didn’t know what used to be Perrier is Nestles. Do they have dibs on the Great Lakes you think?

    Reply
  3. Adam Solomon

    Oy, that’s funny…well, as long as the water is the same quality as it always has been, and you don’t detect a chocolatey taste in it, I guess that’s not so bad ;)

    Hey, with all those fruit-flavored waters out there today, when do you think some bright mind will finally come up with the idea of chocolate-flavored water? It’s bound to happen…:P

    Reply
  4. Borya

    And the best is that Nestle is Swiss :-) Hum…..what’s a pop up cap? I think I know but am not sure. Here I only drink bottled water where you have to remove the cap or I drink natural water out of the pipe. Relatively recently they started selling bottles with what I think is a pop up in supermarkets, but mostly for sportive drinks. Maybe you can tell me in the Forum, Matt?

    Reply
  5. Adam Solomon

    Boris, this is a popup cap ;) You just move the white piece on top up a little bit, and can drink through it.

    Reply
  6. Sebastian

    Maybe, Nestle is a division of EMI! :P

    Reply
  7. Borya

    Thanks, Adam. Just as I thought. And this is USUAL in the US? Here: no. And I hope it never becomes so.

    Reply
  8. Ottmar

    I am amazed that nobody finds this scary. I mean think of it – a handful of companies owning most fresh water springs…. that could be worse than anything we have experienced with oil!

    Reply
  9. Carol

    Well, I certainly do. It’s crazy that a Swiss Industry seems so close to owning all of the bottled water. That was why the remark about owning the Great Lakes…

    Reply
  10. Matt Callahan

    No, I understand your point exactly. I guess I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that the entire world is on its way to being owned by a handful of corporations. How can it be stopped? I hate to give up.

    Reply
  11. Adam Solomon

    Wait, wait, so that means Nestle owns the whole springs?? Oy, that’s no good : I thought it just meant they owned the company that distributed the water…..

    Reply
  12. David Jr.

    Well, I think Nestle owns the faucet taps with Brita filters that are used for the bottled water. *lol*j/k*

    All the same company, different names for different regions, perhaps for marketing or distributng locality. In Cali, Alhambra is Northern Cal, Sparkletts is Southern Cal — the commercial used to use the same jingle, just different names.

    I still think bottled water is one of the biggest scams of our lifetime. *lol*

    -D

    Reply
  13. David Jr.

    *lol* Adam, did you say chocolate flavored water? That’s Guiness. :o)

    -D

    Reply
  14. Mark

    This is far more disturbing than who’s buying up bottled water rights. Let me review a little history about Nestles. Back in the seventies Nestles got a nasty reputation of being one of the quintessential predatory corporate monster. Why? A big broo-ha-ha happened over Nestles saleswomen posing as nurses and giving out free baby formula in 3rd world countries such as India and Bangladesh. The controversy was that they gave just enough formula so that the lactating mother’s milk would dry up during the time it took to give their babies “free” feedings. After the mothers had dried up they were dependent on Nestles for the formula and had to pay the market price. The resulting problems were the lack of money and refrigeration. Many were forced to dilute and/or feed their infants stale milk. The irony is that the mothers HAD the milk in the first place! It was a classic case of selling ice to Eskimos, except with the added dimension of suffering babies.

    This incident stained the Nestles name and there was a wide spread boycott of Nestles products around the world (then). As a result, the marketing technique was discontinued (as far as I know). However, suspicions of anything Nestles still remain…

    Reply
  15. Borya

    Let’s not put it down as far as blaming that Nestle is Swiss, okay? Let’s say it’s all about big companies, may them come from Europe, from the US or Russia.
    I think it was ten years ago that I heard a professor from Israel who teaches at a German military university (Wolffsohn is his name) point out how problematic the water question already had become, that future wars will be because of water and how many projects especially Israel has already started to care about this question because of his sensible situation.

    Reply
  16. Carolynn

    Nestle and Mendhi sure do get around!
    : P

    Reply
  17. Carol

    I cheat and refill the bottles….
    One good thing is there are a whole lot less styrofoam cups lining conference tables etc.

    Reply

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