A água engarrafada nos EUA é uma coisa bizarra. Nos restaurantes, a primeira coisa com que o cliente é brindado mal se senta à mesa é, após o "how are you doing today?", um copo grande cheio de água da torneira gelada e pedras de gelo. Gratuito. Para, logo a seguir, lhe ser perguntado o que é que vai beber. Se o cliente é dos que só bebem água a bebida do almoço é gratuita. "No problem."
Daíi que, para o norte-americano médio, o hábito europeu de pagar para beber água se assemelhe à compra de ar de Paris enlatado à beira do Sena.
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A notícia que hoje ocupa a parte superior da primeira página do Washington Post recoloca-nos a dúvida recorrente acerca da racionalidade das escolhas dos humanos e do excesso de dinheiro no bolso de alguns .
In Tokyo and Paris, you can now spend $5 a glass on special beverages selected by a professional sommelier.
Nothing surprising there, except the beverages being served are different brands of bottled water -- with various "flavors" supposedly matched to different foods.
Desalinated seawater from Hawaii, meanwhile, is being sold as "concentrated water" -- at $33.50 for a two-ounce bottle. Like any concentrated beverage, it is supposed to be diluted before drinking, except that in this case, that means adding water to . . . water.
And from Tennessee, a company named BlingH2O -- whose marketing imagery features a mostly nude model improbably balancing a bottle of water between her heel and her hip -- is retailing its water at $40 for 750 milliliters, with special-edition bottles going for $480 -- more than a million times the price of the liquid that comes from your tap.
The push to turn water into the new wine is a marketing phenomenon: The bottled-water industry is engaged in an intense effort to convince Americans that the stuff in bottles is substantially different from the stuff out of the tap.
Nothing surprising there, except the beverages being served are different brands of bottled water -- with various "flavors" supposedly matched to different foods.
Desalinated seawater from Hawaii, meanwhile, is being sold as "concentrated water" -- at $33.50 for a two-ounce bottle. Like any concentrated beverage, it is supposed to be diluted before drinking, except that in this case, that means adding water to . . . water.
And from Tennessee, a company named BlingH2O -- whose marketing imagery features a mostly nude model improbably balancing a bottle of water between her heel and her hip -- is retailing its water at $40 for 750 milliliters, with special-edition bottles going for $480 -- more than a million times the price of the liquid that comes from your tap.
The push to turn water into the new wine is a marketing phenomenon: The bottled-water industry is engaged in an intense effort to convince Americans that the stuff in bottles is substantially different from the stuff out of the tap.
more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/29/AR2008062901872.html?nav=hcmodule
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