Product placement

Just checked my blog - I mean what else has a chap to read that's good on Christmas Day? The advertising fellows clearly are aware of the blog titles, but probably don't actually read the content, when placing the ads, for the ad currently displayed talks about climate change and Al Gore. Turns out it's an advert for the upcoming "other" climate exchange conference sponsored by the Heartland Institute. Synchronicity again because I was going to talk about them and other institutes and think tanks in relation to science. But not tonight.

Chicago's bottled water tax is looming and so the Tribune was discussing the implications of this Daley-inspired, money-raising prank. Actually, if it discourages the needless and excessive expenditure on this commodity so much the better. Did you know, for example, that it takes 3 liters of water to make 1 liter of bottled water? Why, you might ask? Because the nasty plastic bottle needs to be manufactured. Factor in further the contribution to the carbon footprint from the energy involved in the manufacture, the use of non-renewable resources and one is left wondering how these products can be so popular with the (probably) environmentally conscious consumers. And we haven't even discussed the disposal/recycling of the mountains of empties that accumulate.

One consumer spoke of the health benefits derived from her bottled water: one bottle before exercise and another later. So what mysterious component within the bottle is responsible for her eternal youth and well-being? None that isn't equally available from your tap. It is completely beyond me why so many people go to the trouble to truck back vast crates of bottled water of all shapes and sizes yet spurn the same (or better) product from their own faucets. Standards of treatment for the water supply are generally higher than they are for bottled water, yet people have the perception it is somehow inferior to something that has a cute name or appealing label.