Bottled Water: The Marketing Trick of the

Century (Advanced ESL Lesson Plan)

ESL Level: Advanced

Lesson Topic: The marketing success of bottled water

Skill Focus: Reading, Vocabulary, Speaking

Lesson Plan Download: marketing-bottled-water-advanced-30032017.docx

Approximate Class Time: Two hours

Health & Diet ESL Lesson Plan: Warm-Up

1. What are some products you buy for health reasons?

2. Would you feel embarrassed to be seen in public with a McDonald’s
bag?
3. When you hear the phrase The Marketing Trick of the Century, what
products do you think of?
4. What’s your opinion of tap water?

Reading: The Marketing Trick of the Century

What do North Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Western

Europeans pay up to 10,000 times the price for even though it’s available for
free? The answer is bottled water, and the success of this $13-billion-dollar
industry (in the U.S.) is what some people call the marketing trick of the
century.

From a marketing perspective, bottled water giants such as Coke and Pepsi
have capitalized on people’s desire to live healthier with slogans such as
“hydration is healthy” (Dasani) or “a naturally pure and mineral-balanced water
supports your body’s youth” (Evian). These slogans are often accompanied by
images of glaciers that give consumers the idea the water is taken fresh from a
natural spring. The truth is that nearly half of bottled water in the US, Canada,
and the U.K. is just treated tap water from municipal sources. This message,
originally hidden, can now be seen in the small print on bottles since companies
were forced to cave in to pressure from environmental groups a few years ago.

If it is ‘treated’ tap water though, doesn’t this mean it’s better? Not really,
according to a 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group that found that
bottled water had the same level of contaminants as tap water. Also, in the
U.S, U.K, and Canada, tap water has more stringent health standards than
those imposed on bottled water manufacturers, suggesting bottled water may
be even unhealthier. Lastly, regarding taste, countless blind taste tastes (one
conducted by the New York Times) have shown that tap water was equal or
better tasting to consumers.

The victim of the bottled water industry is not only the consumer. The majority of
the 3 million tons of plastic used yearly worldwide ends up in landfills or the
ocean. Additionally, it takes 3 litres of water to package one bottle, which can
take 700 years to begin to decompose.

What’s more absurd, consumers are paying exorbitant prices for a product

that, being municipal water, is subsidized by their own tax money. The
resource is also unbelievably cheap. For example, the province of British
Columbia only charges companies $2.50 for every 1 million litres of water.
Considering a single bottle of water is sold for approximately the same price, it’s
no wonder giant corporations like Nestle are eagerly vying to tap into this
profitable market.

Environment (ESL) Lesson Plan: Comprehension Questions

1. What is the main idea of the passage?

2. According to the article, why do many people buy bottled water?
3. What hidden truth did bottled-water companies want to hide?
4. According to the author, is bottled water healthier?
5. Who (or what) does the second past paragraph suggest is the other
victim of this industry?
6. What’s your opinion of the article?

Possible Answers

Environment (ESL) Lesson Plan: Discussion Questions

Write down two questions below related to the topic of the article. Then ask
them to your classmates. The first question has been written for you.

 How often do you buy bottled water? Why?




Environment (ESL) Lesson Plan: Vocabulary Matching

Match the words with their meaning as used in the article.

1. to capitalize (on
something)
2. a slogan A. a phrase used to advertise a product
3. a glacier B. unreasonably high
4. a spring C. a slowly moving mass of ice found in mountains
5. to cave in (to D. to break down; to decay or become rotten
something) E. a place where waste is buried and covered with soil
6. stringent F. ridiculous; silly
7. landfill G. to vie to compete eagerly to achieve something
8. to decompose H. to take a chance to gain an advantage
9. absurd I. strict
10. exorbitant J. a place where water wells up from an underground source
11. to subsidize K. to support financially
12. v. to vie L. to stop resisting to pressure

Tap into ENERGY/MONEY

to use or take what is needed from something such as an energy
supply or an amount of money :
People are tapping into the power supply illegally.
We hope that additional sources of funding can be tapped.