Bottlemania

Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It provides a succinct history of bottled water and how it came to be a force in the beverage industry. She also fully explores the social, political, and ecological connotations of drinking water from a bottle. This quest is set against the backdrop of a battle between Poland Spring and Fryeburg, a Maine town whose water fills the company’s bottles. Royte shows us that complicated water issues are not only unfolding in parched western states, and that water-use laws will only grow in significance as clean sources dry up. After exploring the privatizing of a resource that has traditionally been publicly managed in the U.S., the author draws her own conclusions. Instead of succumbing to clever marketing, buying pretty labels or trying to be hip, she says her water decisions will reflect the understanding that bottled water is an unnecessary indulgence that’s contributing to the major social and environmental problems of our time.

The actually book cover is quite clever and intresting aswell. Teh name of the book it fit into a bottle shape which makes up the image and the background is of water bubbles. Quite celver.

Becks

When we got the last delievery in at my pub, i couldnt help but notice that the labels on the becks bottles have changed to four diffenerent images, one is shown below:

This completely puzzzled me. Why would they suddenly change a well reconzined brand label into something ocmpletelty differnet that dont even contain they name on and have four different images that dont even link together in any clear way. So i done some research on it.

There main aim is to start an initiative that gives promising contemporary artists the opportunity to exhibit their work in pubs, bars and off-licences across Britain. The brand, which has been fostering emerging artistic talent in the UK for more than 20 years, has linked up with the Royal College of Art (RCA) for the new initiative which will raise its retail profile in the months ahead.

A panel of judges from the prestigious College have selected four talented young artists who will have the unique opportunity to showcase their work on the labels of more than 27 million bottles of Beck’s (275ml) available to retailers in the on and off-trade from August.

The four successful Beck’s Canvas artists are:
• Riitta Ikonen, 27, who is studying a two year MA in Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Arts and graduated last month.
• Tom Price, 26, is an alumni of Sculpture (2006) who received a First Class BA (Hons) Sculpture degree from Chelsea College of Art in 2004 and currently works from his Brixton studio.
• Simon Cunningham is an alumni of the MA Fine Art, photography course (2007) who lives and works in London.
• Charlotte Bracegirdle, 34, is an alumni of the Masters degree in painting (2006). Originally from Devon, Charlotte spent seven years applying to art schools across the UK before accepting a place at the RCA.

So what do becks get out of this? Well they believe, that the striking new labels that will be featured in a TV campaign for Beck’s to be run throughout August – will boost consumer awareness during a key trading period for retailers and that the introduction of new bottle labels will also have significant benefits for retailers. They believe the four new designs will stimulate the interest of pub-goers and shoppers and attract new consumers to the brand in the months ahead.

Will this actually be in case? I am not so sure, certainly in the last 2 weeks we have had these new deisgns in the pub i work in i havent recalled the sales in them going up, but maybe i will be better of judging this once august has gone and the ad campaign is in full swing as i personally havent seen a tv advert for these bottles yet. What do you think?