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Harrison Stypula

Michael Arnzen

SEL 107 11

10/4/20

How Water Has Become a Commodity

Water is a universal necessity. It can be found many places for many different prices, but

this analysis will take a look at one specific brand, Fiji. It’s rather amazing that water, a

substance that you can get with the turn of a knob at a sink instantaneously, is a product that has

enabled not just a few but many companies to thrive by selling their respective waters. Some are

more plainly advertised, like the simple filtered waters, others such as Fiji, are advertised more

extensively and detailed in their subtext and the rhetoric behind it. What makes their water so

well known is that it does, in fact, come from Fiji (Raz, 2010). This appeal alone could have an

impact on the way people think about this water. It is likely groups of people solely buy this

water for the reason that it is drawn from springs in Fiji, and only Fiji.

For a look deeper into the Fiji ads, we will look at one of their commercials. In their

commercial titled “Natures Gift,” the imagery used showcases a silhouette of their standard

water bottle, filled in with nature effects such as waterfalls, tropical looking trees, mountain

ranges, and a butterfly that goes through the scene. This is highly contrasted by a background of

smoggy cities and busy highways; a helicopter flies by and is cleverly edited to turn into the

butterfly behind the silhouette as mentioned before. This could be looked at as the company

trying to imply that their water comes from such a pure, clean environment, that is so much less

polluted than typical urban settings, making it logically the better choice of drinking water. It

also implies by showing all the pretty rain forest scenes that they aren’t industrializing the native
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area where they get their water from. This is aided by their slogan that the water is “untouched

by man,” once again inferring that they don’t even touch the environment that they get their

product from. This idea of preserving the environment helps to speak at an ethical level, while

also wanting to appeal to people’s emotions to protect the environment.

The logic of being healthier by drinking their product is not just seen in this particular

commercial, but also in one of their print ads as well. The ad itself is for a thinner, more “sleek,”

new size of water bottle. In it, it states that it can be used “everywhere,” in “cupholders,

treadmills, your lifestyle.” They cleverly slip in the word treadmill to target an audience of active

people that workout, as well as to appeal to those that want to have a more active lifestyle

themselves. That is only the start of the underlying meanings in it, however. In the ad, the thinner

water bottle is placed as the “I” in the word fit, yet another subliminal message to make people

feel more “fit” by drinking this water.

Now this specific aspect of the ad is not the only subtext found here though, as the model

that’s actually holding the water up in position for the “I” in fit, is a stereotypically attractive, fit

looking woman. She is slightly faded out in the background, but you still don’t have to look

closer to find her. This method of using someone attractive to model your product is a very

commonplace thing in advertising, so it’s really no surprise you see a fit looking woman wearing

solely a sports bra, displaying the companies’ product to once again imply that you could be that

fit and attractive by using their product. The message could also be taken as, by using this

product people, with the models’ physical appearance could also be more interested in you

because of the water you drink. It is also to be taken into account of the placement of the

product, not only being held by the woman in the word fit but is also conveniently placed in front

of her chest, highlighting that aspect even more. It’s quite plain to see then that this company is
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not above falling to the age-old idea of using what can be considered by some as sexual imagery

to sell their product.

All of these different marketing devices used together can show how this product became

and stays so popular. With the aspect of being more fit, healthy, and athletic it’s sure to draw in

people of all sorts. Also, adding in the aspect of the attractive women gives the product sex

appeal. Finally, finishing off with the actual style and shape of the bottle to make it better for

“active lifestyles” which seems like a simple ploy of making people want this “new and

improved” product. Because of all these factors, it makes perfect sense how this particular ad is

so successful.

Taking this same look at all the different components of their commercial, it also shares

the same idea of being healthier from drinking their water, just in this case from a less athletic

standpoint and more as the water itself is just plainly healthy, because as they say in their slogan,

it’s “Earth's finest water.” Besides this, of course, there is all the relaxing, natural imagery that

could give people a sense of calm and believe the water will also give them that feeling. Besides

this aspect there is also calming music that sounds like a choir singing, and the narrator of the

commercial sounds like a little girl, both of which are used to make it seem purer. In particular,

the use of a child as narrator seems the most useful, as children are often used to market

products.

The product itself, while it uses these varying manners of rhetoric, is not actually

untruthful about its nature. It does in fact come from Fiji as stated previously, and does have

minerals and electrolytes compared to normal tap water (Picincu, 2019), so these ads are actually

truthful and realistic about the content relating specifically to their product for benefiting you

more than regular tap water, however these benefits are very much overdramatized in their ads.
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While the water produced by Fiji is fairly true to its word, the company itself has been

seen as less than honest in some of its environmental impacts. According to Vox, the companies’

claim in 2008 that they would “reduce its carbon footprint by reducing its carbon emissions and

planting natural forests”, yet they only planted half the trees they claimed they would in that time

(Romano, 2019). In addition to this, the Vox article states that approximately 12 percent of the

people of Fiji have no access to clean, safe drinking water (Romano, 2019), which seems a bit

hypocritical for a company that promotes their exotic, healthy water, taking it from a place where

a significant portion of the population doesn’t even have safe water to drink.

So, all this information adds up to not really saying that Fiji, the company, is doing

anything wrong in their ads. The companies’ business behind the curtain may be more unethical

than they promote it to be, and their ads may try to use underlying messages to get you to buy

their product, but as their water itself does stand up to its hype, for the most part their methods in

advertising can’t be overly criticized. But with all that trouble and sneaky subtext, is a slightly

higher percentage of minerals and a significantly higher cost in dollars really worth it compared

to the ease of twisting a knob on a sink?

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1365462083415572483?editor-closed
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Works Cited

Raz, Guy, host. "A Bottled Water Drama in Fiji." NPR, 1 Dec. 2010. NPR, Transcript

www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131733493/A-Bottled-Water-Drama-InFiji#:~:text=Well%2C

%20Fiji%20Water%20actually%20comes,to%20your%20local%207

%2DEleven.&text=The%20military%20government%20in%20that,cent%20to

%2015%20Fijian%20cents.Accessed 26 Sept. 2020.

Romano, Aja. "Fiji Water Girl Would Be a Great Meme If Bottled Water Were Something to

Celebrate."

Vox, 7 Jan. 2019, www.vox.com/culture/2019/1/7/18171384/

fiji-water-girl-meme-bottled-water-bad-environment. Accessed 24 Sept. 2020.

Picincu, Andra. "Fiji Water and Nutrition." Livestrong.com, 10 Sept. 2019, www.livestrong.com/

article/340864-fiji-water-nutrition/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2020.