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Marketing guru aims to 'do a Hindmarch' with reusable bottle
Mark Prigg, Evening Standard27 Aug 2008
A London firm today vowed to make tap water the latest must-have fashion accessory.
Tap is hoping to do for the water bottle what designer Anya Hindmarch did for the shopping bag.
It today began selling reusable £6 water bottles made of a special tough plastic.
Britain currently spends £ 1.5billion per year on designer label water, discarding more than three million empty bottles.
Tap says its bottles will last for several years, and are easy to clean.
The launch comes six months after the Evening Standard began its Water On Tap campaign, which has led to more than 3,000 London restaurants and bars offering free tap water to customers.
Tap's founder, marketing expert Joshua Blackburn, said he hoped to sign fashion designers and supermodels to back the bottles.
"We want to see Kate Moss backing tap water, not Evian," said Mr Blackburn.
"Tap water really needs an image makeover, and we plan to partner with the world's top designers to do that. We hope the bottle is the first step, and it creates a brand for water.
"Bottled water is simply a marketing invention, a brand - and one that is costing our nation both financially and environmentally.
"In a country where high quality water is literally on tap, we should be rethinking the amount we spend as a nation on designer water.
" We need to look at the plastic bag as an example - it is now seen as being a bad thing, and the fashion industry has embraced new ecofriendly shopping bags."
Shoppers snapped up 20,000 of Hindmarch's canvas "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" carriers within hours last year, turning them into instant collector's items.
Mr Blackburn's company, which gives 70 per cent of its profits to water charities, will initially sell a £6, 400ml bottle for use in the office, and a 1 litre bottle, to be launched within weeks, for use at home.
The bottles are made from Tritan plastic, which is 100 per cent recyclable and free from the polycarbonate chemicals found in most other reusable plastic bottles.
"This is all about making water cool," said Mr Blackburn. "You can reuse bottled water bottles, but they become unhygienic after a few uses.
"We spent a lot of time and money sourcing a high quality bottle that has no problems with chemicals seeping into the water, and is easy to clean.
"We hope it will become a fashion movement in itself."
The Standard's Water On Tap campaign is backed by chefs including Aldo Zilli and Tom Aikens, Thames Water and Mayor Boris Johnson.
Reader views (10)
I think you'll find that most water around the world has been waste water or sewage at some time. After all, it has been drunk and passed out of numerous bodies, thousands of times. I am certainly not amused about this call to stop buying designer water; it's about time a stop was put to the plastic waste produced by this industry and the huge amount of money demanded for something we can get out of a tap for a few pence.
- Noel Winterbottom, London, England, 18/09/2008 14:28
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"Bottled water is simply a marketing invention, a brand - and one that is costing our nation both financially and environmentally."
At £6 a pop and using people like Kate Moss to promote this; isn't this concept the same thing??? The comparison between plastic bags is an extremely poor example - The majority of people don't drink tap water because of it's taste, not because its not cool. And whilst this bottle claims to be 100% recyclable, it is funny how there is no mention of the manufacturing process involved and how much impact on the environment it has? I'd be intrigued to know how much CO2 is pumped out in to the atmosphere in manufacturing and shipping these bottles. Besides, what kind of message does it send out if the person promoting this sort of "fashion move" spends half their life over the atlantic in first class pumping yet more CO2 in to the atmosphere? It's not about making water cool, it's about filtering it and taking out the chlorine that turns so many people off it in the first place!
- Lloyd Kilby, Beaconsfield, 16/09/2008 12:39
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There is an important issue about recycled water which is not being aired in this country, and that is the estrogen in the water which is linked to both prostate and breast cancer. The deafening silence is due in part to the anxiety about an overpopulated planet, and the wish to say nothing negative about birth control pills, but is increased prostate cancer for the next generation, without their free choice, an acceptable answer to any problem?
- Philippa T, London, England, 16/09/2008 11:46
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I am French and notice that each time I come to the UK, when having a shower I get a very bad rash from the water. I can smell the chlorine and and there is no way I am swapping spring water for chemically treated water. I am highly amused for this call to stop buying "designer water" when in fact tap water is nothing but heavily treated water once having been waste water, sewerage, you name it. I think I personally rather induce the Evians and Volvic of this world into my body.
- V.Sander, United Kingdom, 16/09/2008 06:19
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£6 for a re-usable plastic bottle...........what a complete rip off!!
- Nneil Grinsell, london, 11/09/2008 11:16
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After spending time in Africa where some people living in poverty have no viable source of clean drinking water, it sickens me to see people with perfectly good drinking water on tap buying drinking water. Let's end this ridiculous trade in 'designer water'.
- Greg Pearson, Bedford, 09/09/2008 13:57
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Kate Moss is hardly the most healthy public figure to back this initiative, she'd probably re-use it by turning it into a bong when she got home......
- Wendy K, London, 09/09/2008 12:53
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Roger Wiltshire lives in Surrey, not Third World (where they'd love to be able to drink fresh tap water that tastes 'bad' or 'poor', so long as they can stave off dehydration). Silly man. And if 99% of his water is going down the plughole he's selfish to boot (even pre-schoolers know basic techniques to saving water, do read up!).
- Mel Ryder, Kew, 09/09/2008 10:53
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Encouraging the public to stop buying bottled water is a great move but the tap campaign has completely missed the point. Why on earth would anyone want to drink tap water? The bad taste and poor quality is the very reason why the bottled water industry has done so well. Furthermore, when anyone visits a restaurant, they do so because they want a decent meal and probably some decent wine. Why should they spoil everything by drinking tap water.
Nothing miraculous has happened to the quality of tap water in the last 50 years and it still contains the myriad of impurities, most of which have had virtually no research on their long term health effects. Further, the tap water utilities could never get pure drinking water to our homes because of the state of the pipe work and infrastructure, nor should we expect them to since we only drink 1% of our total usage - the other 99% goes down the plug or toilet or used to wash dishes, clothes and cars.
Pure water means just that. Pure H2O! It comes naturally from the sky but unfortunately we pollute in with industrial or agricultural output so badly that it needs cleaning again before we drink it. Using a subsink RODI purification system from The Pure H2O Company is the most sensible method of bringing water back to a standard that is both healthy and pleasant to drink. As for tap it's certainly safe to use to wash the dishes and water the garden but please... don't force it down our throats, it tastes appalling.
- Roger Wiltshire, Egham, Surrey, 09/09/2008 09:53
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I don't know whether to jump for joy or weep. It says a lot about our total immersion in a consumerist and 'media star' culture when we have to be coaxed into adopting common sense initiatives through yet another 'must-have' consumer item. What's wrong with a thermos flask?
- Diana Korchien, London, England, 09/09/2008 09:53
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