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Smart Water, okey dokey?

Water, H2O, has always been thought to be the purest of the elements. However, Smart Water, “Water that’s the envy of all water,” would have you believe that if water is not bottled and infused with electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals, it is tainted, undrinkable and teeming with impurities. Yet, why do we believe that the addition of electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals to our water makes it more pure?

Smart Water is advertised as “the water with all the answers.” The advertisement asks, “What do you drink for purity?” and goes on to say, “It’s dirty out there. Smart Water makes water the way natural used to, but in a totally pure environment. 100% pure water, 100% pure electrolytes. Nothing else. How smart is that?” How is infusing water with electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals in a laboratory making it more natural in a “totally pure environment”? Smart Water has warped our sense of what is natural. No, water from a spring is not natural anymore. Water from a spring is tainted, dirty, ridden with what Smart Water identifies as “random stuff and whatever else the animals that swim in it leave behind.”

Smart Water’s alibi is its ability to play into the average American’s fear of the unclean, the polluted. Smart Water’s website elucidates the fact that Smart Water vapor distills the water and adds electrolytes in order to speed hydration. So, in addition to the fact that Smart Water plays into our fears of the unclean, it also plays into our desire for quick fixes, offering more bang for our buck. What more could we ask for?

Celebrities play into this myth. Celebrities have the power to dictate what is popular and what is not. Celebrities play a very active role in the world of marketing. Not all of us watch the news, but I’m going to guess that the majority of us are up to date on the goings on of such celebrities as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. When these celebrities promote a product, we are quick to listen.
Not only playing into our fears of the unclean and desire for the quickest fix, Smart Water employs the likeness of a very prominent celebrity, Jennifer Aniston. With her flawless skin and trim body, it is no wonder that Smart Water’s sales are booming. Through Aniston’s glowing, flawless skin, Smart Water promotes its ability to provide us with water that has a powerful effect on our looks. The advertisements portray her effervescent, laughing, in a state of pure happiness, all of which promote the purity of Smart Water. The picture is black and white, and the only color we see is focused on the blueness of the shapes that seem to promote the wholesomeness of the product.

Perhaps the most telling and prominent myth behind Smart Water is its namesake. Who wouldn’t want to drink water promoted as “smart”? Smart Water plays into our desire to make the right choices as to what we deem healthy and pure. Smart Water suggests that if we are not drinking bottled water, we are backwards, unhealthy, primitive, naively imbibing tainted water. In today’s day and age, who wants to be considered backwards in a world that is relentlessly moving forward at a whirlwind pace?