Whilst googling to see which celebrity has been seen touting their very own onegreenbottle we came across a most honest and incontrovertible truth – single use plastic water bottles make even the most genetically gifted (and enhanced) gods that walk amongst us look, well, mwah………….Even with a billion dollar marketing budget, those single use plastic water bottles do not look sexy. Fact. Period. Ever. Seriously, it’s 2023 and we are all hyper aware of hype that is so hypocritical around selling water in plastic single use bottles. Coca-cola are justifying being the biggest producer of plastic bottles on the planet by using a fraction of recycled plastic in their bottles. These bottles then become a hybrid material that is impossible to recycle and yet the ‘greenwashing’ goes on.
Celebrities have enormous influential reach. Global sports stars can impact the actions of future generations like no others. Onegreenbottle is proud to work with one of the leading premier league football teams in supplying all of the team, trainers and support staff with reusable stainless steel bottles and the club has installed water fountains throughout their training grounds and main stadium, encouraging players, staff and supporters to refill. Kudos here also for Christiano Ronaldo. In a 2021 press conference where he made a show of removing two Coca Cola bottles from the desk and replacing them with a bottle of water. The clip went viral and was linked to the footballer’s strictly healthy diet and dislike for fizzy drinks or junk food BUT wouldn’t it have been better if he’d plonked a reusable bottle down next to his microphone instead? Here he is proudly displaying his red evolution sports bottle at that same 2021 conference and he goes off the scale in sexiness. Now his water is toxin free, ice cold and can be reused thousands of times before being responsibly recycled. This may have only happened in our dream sequence but checkout how good he looks!
How could Ronaldo get even hotter (yet pleasantly chilled at the same time)?
So…………….this got us thinking. We strongly believe that Responsible is the New Sexy and now here is the the scientific evidence……………
Could Jason Momoa look any more fabulous?????
Another example of a bit of celebrity hypocrisy comes from the equally dreamy Jason Momoa. Calling out Chris Pratt a few years back for being seen using a plastic bottle on his Instagram, shaving his hair off to warn about the plastic crisis (yeah we don’t understand this either) and being named the UN’s Advocate for Life Below Water in 2022, he appears to be an all round eco-warrior. BUT he has since been accused of ‘climate hypocrisy’ after plugging his own aluminium bottled water brand. The aluminium manufacturer who own nearly half of the company has been criticized for their record of environmental destruction and air pollution, PLUS the bottles are shipped via Amazon packaged in plastic bubble wrap. Aluminium is not as angelic compared to plastic as it is often perceived, being labelled as a ‘dirty’ material to produce. We think the picture on the left can be improved by making one simple swap………
Checkout Jason once we shipped him some triple wall insulated stainless steel water bottles and he, kindly, recreated the original image. Jason also reported that his hair had never felt so glossy and his ‘blue steel’ gaze had never felt to potent. Evidence indeed!
It made my backside look freaking amazing!!!!!
With 211 million followers, Kim Kardashian is the 6th most followed Instagrammer out there, but her relationship with single use plastic is even more toxic than her relationship with her exes. Instagrammer @singleusekim documents the amount of plastic the Kardashian family uses on screen, with 174 pieces used in season 1 of 2022’s ‘The Kardashians’ (even though In 2021 Kim announced that she had made her kitchen plastic free!). We think her booty workout will be much improved by an OGB…Thanks to a stylist’s quick thinking, this shot saved KK of the embarrassment of being caught with yet another single use plastic bottle and she proudly holds her marshmallow pink evolution water bottle. Word is – premiumisation – ditch the basic (single use plastics) and elevate with a co ordinated reusable
The advertising budget and hype
OK so you’ve just started work at a top marketing/Pr company and their biggest client, Coca-cola, wants you to market their processed water supplied in single use plastic bottles and wrapped in plastic cellophane. You have hundreds of millions to come up with a way to sell filtered tap water in plastic bottles at a premium cost. Simple – get a phenomenally good looking celebrity to become the ambassador for the brand.
Let’s checkout Zendaya superselling smartwater and then superimposed with onegreenbottle’s new 700ml Epic canteen in shagpile.
SmartWater has a pretty bottle and a slick marketing campaign. They make it seem like you are consuming some magical elixir that will contribute to longevity and overall wellbeing. But if you buy a bottle you are just paying for dressed up tap water that has an insignificant quantity of electrolytes. You may still be inclined to do that. Hey, maybe a pretty bottle goes a long way for you. But hopefully you are at least more informed after reading this article. Another thing to consider is that not all plastic water bottles are BPA free and some of the plastics used to make the bottles have other harmful chemicals (BPS). These chemicals (especially when exposed to heat or sunlight) can leak into the water and can be toxic to the human body. When this happens it makes it redundant to be adding minerals or vitamins to water that could be influenced by chemicals leaking from the bottle. These chemicals can also influence the taste of the water, so how does the consumer know they are tasting minerals or toxins from the plastic?
The science bit – because you are worth it!
The centre for sustainable and circular technologies at Bath University is working on effective recycling of one of the most exciting bioplastics – PLA – made from starch, this is an effective plastic polymer that they are able to readily recycle back to its constituent compounds in order to fully recycle it. Currently PLA is not recycled but is classified as biodegradeable. Large scale recycling of the material opens doors for its use as an alternative to fossil fuel based plastics. However, this group concede that our future relationship with plastic is reliant on reusing where possible instead of relying on plastics, the sensible use of bioplastics and investment in the effective infrastructure to fully recycle waste plastics. The future is going to require a joint effort between manufacturers, consumers and post processors.
Sadly, those of us making tiny margins on selling our wares, because we are bogged down with responsible supply, long leadtimes, improved employee conditions, charitable donations to worthy causes and pioneering the use of ocean sourced recycled materials, we cannot afford big name celebrity endorsements. Fortunately our minimal photoshop skills have allowed us a bit of fun with the images above. We would like you to judge which looks better. Single use plastic or reusable water bottle?
