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TechnoratiBottled Water Firm Steamed about Miami-Dade Water Ads
Radio commercials that touted Miami-Dade tap water have landed the county in hot legal water with Nestle.
In the radio ad, a talking faucet extols Miami-Dade's tap water as cheaper, purer and safer than bottled water.
![[Nestle Waters North America, which makes nearly $4 billion a year selling Zephyrhills and other brands, is threatening to sue if Dade County doesn't kill commercials the company brands as false advertising.]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/nestle_waters1013.jpg "nestle_waters1013.jpg")
It
may have sounded innocuous to most listeners, but the 30-second spot
left the nation's largest purveyor of bottled water boiling mad.
Nestle Waters North America, which makes nearly $4 billion a year selling Zephyrhills and other brands, is threatening to sue if the county doesn't kill commercials the company brands as false advertising.
''It's an attack on the integrity of the company,'' said Nestle spokesman Jim McClellan. ``It's an attack on the product we produce -- and it's blatantly wrong.''
With the ads ending a five-week run last month and no plans to revive it, the county considers the legal issues moot. But John Renfrow, director of the Water and Sewer Department, defended the county's right to tout its tap water. ''Basically, the message is that our water is fine,'' he said. ``It's wonderful. It's delicious. This is just one of many different spots we've done.''
Environmentalists blasted the threat against the state's largest utility -- believed to be a first -- as a warning shot from an industry worried about slow sales after years of gushing growth.
''Nestle should be ashamed for harassing Miami for promoting its own water,'' said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Washington-based Food & Water Watch. ``This is just outrageous. It's just a way to scare off other utilities.''
McClellan said Nestle -- which contacted The Miami Herald to publicize its complaint -- has never challenged utilities hawking tap water as cheap and safe. But Miami-Dade, he argued, had stepped over the line in besmirching bottled water.
`LIE TO PEOPLE'
``This is the first time we have ever seen a municipality attack a product. They took out paid advertising and spent rate payer dollars to essentially lie to people.''
The county ads, which cost $100,000 for 1,654 spots on 12 FM radio stations, began airing in August. Renfrow said they were primarily aimed at educating a large immigrant population, some from countries lacking reliable potable water systems.
The ad, delivered in lame Brooklyn-ese, opens, ''This is your water faucet speaking. . . .'' It names no brands but questions bottled water quality:
``You think bottled water is purer and safer? You think it's better? Well, you're wrong. It's just the opposite. Bottled water is not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Tap water is. That's why you always can be sure Miami-Dade tap water is superior. Stop wasting your money!''
Two weeks ago, an Atlanta law firm representing Nestle sent an eight-page letter to Renfrow demanding the county yank the ''false or misleading'' ads, pledge in writing not to run them again and supply testing to prove county water ''superior'' to Nestle products. The next day, Nestle sent a complaint to Florida's attorney general.
The county didn't respond in detail but told Nestle it's not re-airing the ads. ''I don't see any legal problems,'' said Henry Gillman, an assistant county attorney.
Nestle, which employs 70 in Miami-Dade, is still pondering legal options. It's also testing county taps, McClellan said, and initial results exceed federal standards for fecal coliform, often an indicator of exposure to animal or human waste.
''When you make a statement and say your water is better than our water, we want to find out,'' said Kevin Mathews, director of health and environmental affairs for Nestle, which is based in Greenwich, Conn.
Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, which represents companies that recorded $11.7 billion in sales in 2007, called Nestle's demands understandable. ``Quite frankly, we were considering similar action.''
Nestle has a lot at stake in the Sunshine State. Florida ranks third behind Texas and California in bottled water sales, gulping more than 575 million gallons a year. The company also operates two plants in Zephyrhills and Madison County and can draw about 2.5 million gallons a day from four springs.
Both Doss and McClellan disputed that Nestle's warning was motivated by a sales drought. Still, after a decade of boom, bottled water, along with other beverages, is showing signs of slowing, said Gary Hemphill, managing director of Beverage Marketing Corp. in New York, which tracks industry sales.
A sagging economy and rising costs are the big issues, he said, but environmental concerns also are making a dent. A number of ''green'' groups have mounted campaigns calling the plastic bottles wasteful, the water expensive and no healthier than tap. While bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the industry doesn't have to test as often or for as many contaminants as utilities do under EPA rules, Hauter said.
''We're pretty comfortable saying that when you're drinking bottled water, you don't know what you're getting,'' she said.
MINIMAL FEES
Environmentalists also have fought to block bottlers' operations in Florida, where companies tap underground springs for minimal fees of a few hundred dollars a year.
Linda Young, director of the Florida Clean Water Network, which has opposed state environmental permits for bottlers, called Nestle's arguments dubious.
''Tap water is superior in some ways. It's right there in your house,'' she said. ``If these companies think they're going to come into Florida and threaten citizens or governments when we give an opinion, that's another reason to make them leave.''
The industry disputes activists' charges, saying companies are reducing plastic in bottles. Nestles' Mathews argues that additional treatment -- including reverse osmosis, ozone disinfection instead of chlorine and sealed bottles -- delivers a better, and better tasting, product than tap.
Renfrow, Miami-Dade's water director, wouldn't discuss Nestle's allegations in detail, saying only, ''Our water meets every requirement for health.'' He added, ``I like their chocolate.''
26 Comments so far
Show AllI think the homeless and unemployed people need to camp out outside of their most recent CEO's mansion's electric gates. Before it comes to begging for food, maybe we can go as protesters. The downsizers deserve no peace and should be dogged everywhere they go. I drive by these castles, these compounds of the CEO's and hedge funders on my way to work. What better way to show who they are and what they are guilty of than to protest right at the door. Once we become fully disempowered, ie: starving, we will not have the strength to protest. We should not wait until we are completely hobbled. It will help them too. Good Christians need to be reminded that the lesser among us are perhaps closer to Jesus than they are!
♪ N - E - S - T - L - E - S
Nestlé's makes the very best
Wa --- ter! ♪
________________________________
Nah... it just doesn't have the old pizazz!
These bottom feeding parasites of society should be kicked out. Why should any corporation, domestic or foreign, have more power than locals??? Perhaps the Neoliberals could answer this.
Carol
It not the fact that the water is coming out of bottle the fact is they are bringing the water table down and the plastic that you drink the water out of is not recycled and it is filling up the dumps more and more everyday.
Just attach a water purifier to your regular water and you won't have all those plastics in the our streets and so many other places and that is a fact.
My water tastes like (crap) but we have a water purifier and what a difference. The bottled water has no taste at all to me it like drinking nothing and makes my mouth so dry so drink more. Our water table is going down and down and there are a lot of places where the streets are getting more and more wholes and that is because water bottlers are taking the water out of our water table and that is a fact they don't want to speak about and it needs to be addressed before there is no more water for us all to drink.
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL NOW AND IN THE FUTURE FOR ALL TIME AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!
They sued Perrier and took all the permits. They ooze their troubled waters all over the world. Good for Miami! All states need to catch on before they- Nestle deplete all the aquifers. Hey go back to choc- on second thought that's another nasty business, second only to oil or diamonds.
Water should remain a public resource only. If it is bottled and sold it should be done by the public for the public interest.
I do get a kick out the company says it is reducung the plastic in bottles. 2 reasons they are doing that cost but it makes the bottle so thin you can't reuse the bottle and fill it with tap water.
I have heard this in many parts of the world, it is all just tap water run through a few filters anyone of us can buy. When tap water is so cheap why wouldn't some one like Nestle make a profit on it. The real problem is the US Government lets large companies dump what ever it wants into the water table and that is fixed in people minds. I have a well on my farm I test for free 4 times a year and the water IS BETTER THAN BOUGHT. One it isn't in a plastic bottle that leaches stuff into the water and I am not using plastic bottles that use OIL to make then the cost to recycle them.
That is how Miami should reword its ad. Use less oil and recylce costs of plastic drink tap water, it is safe clean and you just turn on the tap. I just passed tha on to the Miami Heralds
First of all, I have no problem with Dade county's campaign... they should have every right to extol the virtues of their water. By targeting all bottled water, they can probably claim they are better than some of them.
Now I have a comment on a comment from herbalist. He said rather innocently:
"How petty. They're just mad because they're trying to hawk the same product that can already be found for free."
And then he jokes that maybe next they'll be selling air (and of course oxygen bars are a start in that direction) however here is my point:
Tap water that is tested to be pure by government workers under strict government regulations is not free. The state employees are paid a salary and the time legislators take to study and compose water-quality regulations is not as free as the air.
The reason I'm making this point (as ridiculous and petty as it sounds) is to remind people that government does do some good. The theme that is shouted by the MSM and the right-wing is that government does nobody any good and messes up everything they touch.
Just a reminder that government (as the will of the common people and their protection) has a place and it costs money to have these sorts of rules.
Let's not forget about all those child slave laborers harvesting coca beans for Nestle on the Ivory Coast.
Anyone living in the United States who drinks (and pays for) bottled water is stupid. It is that simple.
That's not true. It is a sweeping generality. We live in farm country where the farms are on the hills and the bottom land where the water has to travel before getting to the wells. The water here is *safe*... just...
The report is sent to all the customers twice a year with the contaminants. Our water is low in some things but high in copper and a couple other trace elements that you want to keep lower. The water company does what it can, but there is only so much water here.
We drink bottled spring water, not purified water which, without some mineral content, tends to leach calcium from the body. We wash and cook with the local water and if we drink a little we don't panic even though it usually tastes pretty bad.
Also having water in bottles makes it convenient for people on the go that haven't filled their own. If there is water available, people may drink less soda and that is a public benefit as well. I always do water over soda when there is a choice.
I don't love Nestle or bottled water uber alles, but lets not kill the baby with the bathwater if you forgive the pun.
I have a 6-pack of empty GLASS Gatorade bottles that I keep filled with tap water. They go with me...For free.
Wow, a municipality actually had testes enough to run ads extolling ANYTHING municipal as opposed to "corporate??!!
Amazing, in this fascist land "o" Lemmings.
Come on capitalism, don't fear the reaper.
Nestle 100% Pure Swamp Water.
Draining an Everglade near YOU.
Now 99.4% Manatee-Free.
Haven't seen a comment that asks the question, What if Miami-Dade were in fact as pure as Nestles??? Hmmmmm. Don't want to start any rumors but I heard that
one of the bottlers of designer water actually gets their water from a well located near a land-fill in New Jersey. (small giggle) I have never bought one
bottle of designer water, nor do I intend to
Nietzsche
I wish I believed in hell. Nestle corporate executives are probably the filthy rich type who believe God has given them the right to profit no matter what the cost to the poor.
"When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, and make the ephah small and the shekel great."
At least the merchants Amos was railing against were selling food. What kind of monster would deny water to everyone who could not pay?
You may look sharp in your $2,000 suit with your Rolex and limo. I say you are scum.
NESTLE VS. FAMINE VICTIMS, FIRST WORLD VS. THIRD WORLD
Posted by Arthur
24 DECEMBER 2002: NESTLE
VS. FAMINE VICTIMS, FIRST WORLD VS. THIRD WORLD
From http://www.maketradefair.com/default.asp
Demand that Nestlé
drop their claim against Ethiopia!
Take action now to stop Nestlé,
the world’s largest coffee company, demanding $6 million from a country
where 11 million people are facing famine. What are Nestlé doing
to help fight hunger in Ethiopia? They are demanding the Ethiopian Government
pay $6m in compensation for a company that was nationalised 27 years ago,
a company that they didn’t even own at the time. The CEO of Nestlé
has said that companies like his will be held to account for their part
in the fight against hunger in developing countries - so take action now
- e-mail Nestlé telling them to drop the claim for $6m from Ethiopia.
(I e-mailed every Nestle outfit I could find. I think Nestle finally saw the 'light' on this one and dropped the claim. I still avoid Nestle.}
How petty. They're just mad because they're trying to hawk the same product that can already be found for free.
It makes one wonder how much longer it will be before they start marketing air.
Just remind Nestle of the crap infant formula they were selling in Africa a decade ago, or so. They are walking on thin ice. (Just had to get in another bad pun.)
I like Hershey's chocolate better.
Fascism in Action!
The corporations have been encouraged by the free-marketers and neo-cons to think that they can do whatever they want and get away with it. It's time for this nonsense to stop - regardless of the outcome of this suit - the people of
Miami-Dade county and all of Florida - and maybe all of us should just stop buying anything Nestle.
The Bush Family has been promoting Privatization.. A tricky word for the large
corporations to own water, energy, money, banks utilities.
Look a the Banking and Financial system today, they answer to no one and screw
the working slaves of the world. Countries with no borders for Privatization.
I never knew Nestle's feelings were so tender. Poor big corporations. They don't like getting their feelings hurt.
Chocolate always melts in hot situations.
Lets see - Monsanto sues farmers because air-borne cross fertilization from terminator seeds turns up in small farms. Bottled water - the selling of of a natural resource because the same corporate structure has given birth to super-fund level pollution problems - themselves underfunded ...Bhopal, Equador, mines, oil, monoculture... they hate us because we're free.
How dare they?