Evian’s campaign tries to tell consumers to “live young”, but it may end up reminding the public about its younger generation and the future of the planet.
Bottled water is one of those environmentalists’ pet peeves. The plastic bottles are wasteful, often do not get recycled, and the water itself is often of lesser quality than plain old tap water. Tap water is subject to municipal inspection and regulation whereas bottled water is not – even though it is (falsely) perceived by many to be of higher quality. So Evian’s splash, or re-entry, into the Israeli bottled water market with a new campaign a few weeks ago understandably has environmentalists upset.
Elio Pacheco, the CEO of Danone Waters, came to Israel in late June to re-introduce Evian’s campaign and admitted that environmentalists are one of the brand’s biggest problems. Instead of going on the defensive, however, he said that Evian “has protected its water sources since the 1920s… We were one of the first companies to improve bottles. We introduced a smaller bottle for easier recycling. There is a lot we do on an environmental level, we just don’t shout it from the rooftops.”
The slogan of the new campaign, which consists mostly of models wearing t-shirts with babies’ bodies printed on them (thus making the models look like babies), is ‘live young’. This Green Prophet wonders if that slogan could backfire, causing environmentalists to claim instead that you should avoid drinking bottled water so that our young may live on a healthy planet.
Even if that thought doesn’t occur to most consumers, the Evian campaign is facing awkward timing since the Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry just joined forces with various green groups to fight the bottled water industry.
Maybe it’s time Evian did shout its environmental good deeds from the roof tops.
Read more about the bottled water conundrum in the Middle East::
A Jarring Reminder Why Bottled Water Conflicts with Green Values
Is Israel’s Bottled Water Polluted?
Ban Saudi’s Bottled Water?
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