Fiji Water:
The Purest Water in the World
Jared Lehman
University of Pittsburgh at
Bradford
When someone hears the name Fiji what comes to their mind? Beautiful
emerald green islands surrounded by crystal clear, beautiful pure blue water. So
when they go to the website of Fiji Water and see the bottle floating in front
of a beautiful island background, and hear the sounds of jungle birds singing,
its exactly what someone would expect from a product called Fiji water. Then
under the beautiful island in white letters is the word“Untouched”. When a
person sees that they know, Fiji water must be the purest and best tasting water
in the world. The beauty of the advertisement makes that crystal clear, just
like the water. At the top of the page there is a bar, and the first link on the
bar says “The Water”. When someone clicks on it, a box pops up telling them how
the water comes from a place far from pollution, acid rain, and industry. It
tells the person about the beautiful images the very word Fiji conjures in our
minds. Is Fiji water really something special? Or is it just
water?
If the customer listens to Fiji water, they will tell the customer in no
uncertain terms that it is in fact superior to any other water. Their number one
rule is ‘don’t touch the water’. That way the water stays as pure as it could
possibly be. It is the closest thing to completely fresh and untouched by man as
bottled water could possibly be. They claim that it is drawn directly from the
aquifer and bottled before it can even come in contact with our polluted
21st century air. This product is obviously designed to appeal to the
health fanatics and it also appeals to people who drink a lot of water, because
it is supposed to be the best water they could ever possibly have. Fiji waters
website says that of the top ten waters in the United States, only Fiji water
comes from a real artesian well. They draw it only from the Yaquara aquifer, in
the Yaquara Valley of Viti Levu, one of the two main islands of Fiji. Millions
of years ago, the aquifer was a volcano that slowly turned into an aquifer over
time. It gets its distinct taste and“mouthfeel” because it is formed from rain
slowly filtering down through volcanic rock, where it absorbs silica which gives
it its soft feel. Fiji represents this with a very colorful picture of the
island, with the aquifer and the water comes up out of the aquifer into a giant
Fiji water bottle. They also preserve the taste with the highest grade PET resin
in their bottles. In other words the company uses only the finest plastic in the
manufacturing of their iconic square bottles. This way the taste of their water
stays as fresh and crisp as possible. All of these facts come from the Fiji
water website, but do other sources still think Fiji water is the greatest water
out there?
Another method the website uses to make the customer buy Fiji water is
through celebrity endorsement. On their website they have a video of Ashlee
Simpson at their Fiji water pool party. She, along with waitresses in blue Fiji
water bikinis, gives Fiji water some sex appeal. The company also uses public
events like pool parties to make their product appeal to the young, hip people.
They also gave away Fiji water beach balls and sunglasses. Fiji also had a
fashion show at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Station with a gaggle of
gorgeous models to help make their product more appealing to customers. Holding
a fashion show in such a well-known and prestigious place also gives people the
feeling that Fiji water is a high class beverage. They also have a sweepstakes
a customer can enter to win a trip to the beautiful islands of Fiji. Fiji also
appeals to younger audiences through sweepstakes on Twitter and Instagram where
customers can win cases of Fiji water and other similar Fiji water
prizes.
Another way Fiji water makes their product appealing is the bottle
itself. First of all it’s a square bottle, as opposed to the run of the mill
round bottle. The thing that really catches peoples eyes though is the beautiful
graphics on it. Its like a picture of paradise, with lovely green ferns and a
beautiful pink flower from the islands of Fiji. What customer doesn’t want to
drink something that looks so enticing and beautiful? When looking through all
the waters all of the color is sure to catch the customer’s
eye.
According to an article on Fox news’s website, based on a study done by
the website GAYOT.com, a lot of the things Fiji said were true. Fox also talked
about the high silica content in the water that gives the water its soft mouth
feel, and the fact that the water has never been touched by human hands. It is
as pure as it could possibly be. It also is the only artesian water on Fox’s top
ten water list. It also states that it is the number one imported water in the
United States. It also has traces of magnesium and calcium in it. So using the
rules we learned in the article of In Defense of Food, Fiji water passes the
tests. Don’t eat, or in this case drink anything your grandmother wouldn’t
recognize as real food. Well it is water. It looks like water and it tastes like
water. It doesn’t have any weird smells or looks to it, it’s just plain water.
The second rule in the article is to avoid food that contains ingredients that
are A. unfamiliar, B. Unpronounceable, C. more than five in number, or that
include high fructose corn syrup. Well the only ingredients in Fiji water is
water. The only things in the water are fluoride, potassium, electrolytes,
bicarbonate and sodium. Those are all pretty familiar terms, pronounceable,
there are exactly five of them, they are all found naturally in the water, and
none of them are high fructose corn syrup. So it passes that test with flying
colors.
The next rule In the Defense of Food talks about is avoid products that
make health claims. Fiji doesn’t really make any health claims. They don’t try
to convince the customer that it will help them lose weight, that its good for
their heart, or anything like that. They simply convince the customer that it’s
the best tasting, purest, most exquisite water in the world. In doing so they
subliminally do convince that somehow it must be better for the customer, even
though they don’t say it is. If it’s the purest, best water in the world then it
obviously has to be good for the customer right? So it would seem, in a
roundabout way, that they are making health claims in their advertisements.
Although they don’t come out and say this water is good for people, they make it
very clear that it is pure and unpolluted unlike the rest of our 21st
century products. Therefore what could possibly be better for someone to drink
these days.
The next rule of In the Defense of Food is shop in the peripheries of the
supermarket and stay out of the middle. Since drinks are generally located at
the outsides in the refrigeration sections of the supermarket, Fiji Water also
passes this test. The last rule is get outside the supermarket if possible.
While people can’t get Fiji Water outside stores, people can still get water so
it kind of passes that test. Fiji Water is a product that is healthy. It’s
simply water, and there’s not many ways someone can go wrong with
that.
Fiji water is a well-known product and for good reason. The company does
a fantastic job at promoting their product and it’s a great product. It passed
all of the In Defense of Food rules, it is a good healthy product at least by
those standards. All it is, pure and simple is water. But the company goes to
enormous lengths to ensure that their product is pure as can be, and for that
they deserve the praise that Fiji water always receives. Their ads are effective
at conveying these messages from the beautiful island sights and sounds on the
website to the beautiful women they use to promote their
water.
Works Cited
Fijiwater.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.fijiwater.com/
Top ten bottled waters. (2012, 8 24). Retrieved from
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/24/top-10-bottled-waters/
Pollan, Michael. “In Defense of Food.” Remix:
Reading + Composing. Catherine Latterell. Boston. Bedford/St. Martins,
2010. 539-550. Print.