Posted on 08/31/2011 6:32:51 AM PDT by flowerplough
Forbes is reporting today on a study in the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine that finds that Latino and black parents are three times more likely to purchase bottled water for their children than are white parents. Why? Because it's cleaner, safer, healthier and more convenient than free (or almost free) tap water.
Except ... it's not.
Health experts note reams of data showing tap water to be pure, healthful and entirely sanitary. Plus, study authors say that missing out on the fluoride in tap water could contribute to dental issues among minority children.
And then there's the National Resources Defense Council investigation that discovered that 17 percent of bottled water contained unsafe levels of bacterial loads, and 22 perent was contaminated with chemicals, including arsenic.
So what's behind the decision to buy bottles? You guessed it. Marketing. Here are the three main factors identified by study authors:
* Latino-specific bottled water brands: For example, Las Oleadas, a brand of mineral-enhanced bottled water for sale in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and California, focuses explicitly on the Hispanic market.
* Targeting of minority moms: Think Dasani enlisting TLC's Chilli to deliver its message of health and hydration to African-American mothers in a special Mother's Day program.
* Celebrity endorsement: According to Forbes, in the 1990s, advertisers really started to take the African-American market seriously and realized the profits to be cultivated if they started to use black stars. And between 2008 and 2010, when Hispanic commercials featuring Latina TV host Cristina Saralegui aired, the awareness of Pure Life water, along with "purchase-intent levels," quadrupled among Hispanics.
(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...
I disagree with the premise. Flouride is an unnatural poison to put in your body.
Bottle water is racist
No justice no peace
Pay up now!!
And then there’s the deposit on the bottles in some states.
Just last week someone had footage of some welfare recipients buying a case of bottles water, emptying it all out right outside the store, and then returning hte bottles for the deposit.
That converts “food stamps” to cash for dis-allowed items like tobacco or alcohol.
Perhaps, in a few short centuries, minorities will begin to see how destructive having children out of wedlock is.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
I drink lots of bottled water. Over and over and over. Neighbor kids know when they come to my house and look in the outside ‘fridge to look for an unbroken seal. They must think I have cooties or something. I reuse the bottles about ten times.
They spend every dime they can get their hands on before they even get their hands on it, then blame "the rich" because they have no money.
Spending money on something you can get for free is asinine if you don't have a lot of money.
Hey, now!
If it’s good enough for rat poison, it’s good enough for you!
Oh...wait...what?
:)
I think it’s a little harder to get whites on this bandwagon because a lot of us actually pride ourselves on being hearty and a little invincible. That “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” attitude is, I’m pretty sure, a white thing. My grandma’s attitude was always “a few germs won’t kill ya,” and I suspect the 10-second rule of dropped items on floor came straight out of the farmlands of America, where we descendents of the stocky English and German peasants will eat or drink pretty much anything after a quick sniff or two.
That’s similar to what I was thinking - it’s easy to buy bottled water when you can put it on your EBT instead of taking it out of your paycheck. Yeah, gimme a case of that water and then 5 gallons of WIC milk at once to feed my 2 yr old, cause he likes milk.
Oh, was that racist?
Just off the top of my head, I’d say it is because tap water is dangerous in many of the countries folks (or their parents) came from. Where I came from in AZ, the water was so mineralized, it tasted bad. Of course, in those days there was little bottled water and what there was was expensive in big glass jugs you had to upend on a frame with a spigot.
I’ve operated a public water company for almost 30 years. I drink only bottled water! But I bottle it myself. I fill bottles and jugs with our water as it comes from the wells. Pre-treatment, raw water. Wonderful stuff!
Hmmm.. Maybe they buy the bottled H2O because city tap water tastes like shit??
I feel another government program in the wind or do we have free dentistry for minorities already?
The only area I would be tempted by bottled water is South Florida. The water there tastes horrible.
But, after a few days, you get used to it. Just like anywhere else.
Spending money on something you can get for free is asinine if you don’t have a lot of money.
Just as asinine is spending money you don’t have on pets, and things known to be deadly.
I shouldn’t have to do a disclaimer on pets, which is why the disclaimer. I don’t hate pets, if you can afford them.
On the the other hand, minority children will escape having their precious bodily fluids contaminated by the Communists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.