What kind of water should you be drinking if you want to be healthy and make eco friendly choices?  The people at Evian would have you believe that their brand is the one for you.

They even have a viral video that is sweeping the blogosphere that you have probably seen; it is called “Skating Babies” but is better known as Evian Babies.  The video is an ad which received almost 9 million hits on youtube in the first a week.  MSNBC’s Today show described the video as “beyond cute: a posse of bright-eyed, beaming, chubby babies who should barely be able to walk tearing up a playground on little four-wheeled roller skates — all to the big beat of a remix of the 1979 Sugarhill Gang single “Rapper’s Delight.””

It would appear that the ad was released online and then simply went viral based on its content; however, this is simply not the case.  Evian paid 8,000 bloggers to write about the video as if they had simply discovered it.  In this bloggers opinion this would seem a breach on a multitude of levels.  First off, eco friendly choices have been abandoned by these bloggers, who readers trust, for a paycheck.

What is more troubling is the text that appears in the middle of the ad extolling the products virtues.  It says “naturally pure and minerally-balanced to live young, body and mind”.  What the ad does not mention is that plastic bottles leech toxins into the water, and thus into the person drinking the water.  There are eco friendly choices that bottled water companies, like Evian can make, which would affect the market positively.  Their slogan, “Evian Live young”, would be great if new marketing campaigns were launching the glass line of Evian bottles, which they currently produce.  Evian according to their website has environmental initiatives to help protect natural resources and also cut down on pesticides etc.  Though Evian is making some positive eco friendly choices, the fact that they are promoting plastic bottles, as part of a healthy lifestyle in a video that they made sure would become a hit, shows poor judgment.

I know what you’re thinking here is another lecture on the evils of the plastic bottle.  Not this time. It all boils down to the 8,000 paid bloggers that led to 9 million hits that made this a world wide sensation. Eco friendly choices were abandoned as the cute baby over shadowed the fact that they were hyping a plastic bottle when we all know there is nothing like using a sustainable stainless steel bottle.

Tags: Bottled Water, BPA-free bottles, drinking water, eco friendly choices, eco-friendly lifestyle, ecofriendly, Evian, healthy lifestyle, planet forward, Planet Forward water bottle, reusable stainless steel bottle, stainless steel bottle, sustainable bottle, sustainable practices, sustainable stainless steel water bottle