Dasani
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| Type | Water Beverage |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Coca-Cola Company |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Introduced | 1999 |
Dasani (pronounced /dəˈsɑːni/) is a brand of bottled water from the Coca-Cola company, launched in 1999, after the success of Aquafina (produced by Coca-Cola-rival PepsiCo). It is one of many brands of Coca-Cola water products sold around the world.
Dasani water differs in composition between its national markets. Dasani has a strong product placement marketing campaign appearing in movies like 'You Got Served' to the TV series 'West Wing'.
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[edit] United States
Coca-Cola uses tap water from local municipal water supplies, filters it using the process of reverse osmosis and adds trace amounts of minerals, including magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt), potassium chloride (a sodium-free substitute for table salt), and common salt.
Regular Dasani water comes in the following sizes: 12 oz; 20 oz; 24 oz 'Sports Cap Bottle'; 1 L; 1.5 L; 300 mL; 12 oz fridge pack; 500 mL 6, 12, and 24-pack; and the 24 oz 6-pack.
The Dasani brand includes flavored water beverages, which use the sweetener sucralose (sold under the brand name "Splenda") as a sweetener. The flavors are lemon, grape, raspberry, and strawberry. The flavored variety comes in 20 fluid ounce bottles, 500 ml 6-packs, and 12 oz 8-packs.
The new Plus product line is similar to the flavored variety, only differing in the fact that these have vitamins added and come in Pomegranate-Blackberry, Orange-Tangerine, and Kiwi-Strawberry flavors. Dasani Plus comes in a 20 oz bottle.
[edit] Canada
Dasani was launched in Canada in 2000, a year after launching in the United States. The product was made available in Quebec shortly afterwards, in April 2001.
There are four common Dasani bottle sizes sold in Canada: 300 mL, 500mL, 591 mL, 710 mL, 1 L, and 1.5 L. Bottles are sold individually and in packs of 6, 12, and 24.
The source of Dasani water in Canada is Calgary, Alberta[1]. Dasani has <35 ppm of total dissolved mineral salts.
In early 2005, two flavored versions of Dasani were introduced to the public: Dasani With Lemon and Dasani With Raspberry. Dasani with Strawberry has since been introduced to the public. The flavored beverages are sweetened with sucralose.
[edit] South America
Dasani was introduced to the Brazilian market in mid-2003, renamed as Aquarius. It was introduced to the Chilean market in 2005, including releases in regular, lemon and tangerine flavors. It was released in Colombia in late 2005 with their three regular flavors. In 2005, Dasani was introduced in the Argentinian market with the flavours peach, lemon, citrus and regular. It was also released under the name Ciel Dasani in Mexico in four flavors: lemon-cucumber, papaya-carrot, grapefruit and mandarin-green tea, but it was discontinued in 2006. It was also released in Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Perú .
[edit] United Kingdom
Dasani was launched in the UK on 10 February 2004. The product launch was labelled "a disaster"[2], a "fiasco"[3] and a "PR catastrophe"[3].
Early advertisements referred to Dasani as "bottled spunk" or featured the tagline "can't live without spunk." "Spunk" is slang for semen in the UK and Canada.[4][5]
Prior to the launch, an article in The Grocer trade magazine had mentioned that the source of the Dasani brand water was in fact treated tap water from Sidcup. By early March of 2004, the mainstream press had picked up on the story[6] and it became widely reported that Sidcup tap water was being treated, bottled and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK.[2] Although Coca-Cola never implied that the water was being sourced from a spring or other natural source, they marketed it as being especially "pure". This led the Food Standards Agency to request Hillingdon trading standards officers to launch an investigation into whether the claim was accurate.[7]
The media made mocking parallels with a popular episode of the well-known BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, in which protagonist Del Boy attempts to pass off local tap water as bottled "Peckham Spring".[2] Del's scheme fails when he pollutes the local reservoir, causing the bottled water to glow yellow.
On 18 March 2004, UK authorities found a concentration of bromate in the product that could be considered harmful if consumed in large quantities. Dasani was thus potentially carcinogenic. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market.[8] Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand to Continental Europe were announced to have been canceled as well. Ironically, bromate was not present in the water before Coca-Cola's treatment process. During that process the bromate was produced from the water's bromide.
Coca-Cola intended to launch Dasani as a natural spring water in France and Germany, although this never went ahead after bad publicity in the United Kingdom.
[edit] References and footnotes
- ^ Coca-Cola pulls Dasani launch in Europe
- ^ a b c Bill Garrett (2004-06-16). ""Coke's water bomb"". BBC News Online. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ a b Michael McCarthy (2004-03-20). ""Pure? Coke's attempt to sell tap water backfires in cancer scare"". The Independent. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ Ashlee Vance (2004-03-19). "Coke's spunky water pulled from UK market". The Register.
- ^ Lester Haines (2004-03-11). "Introducing Dasani – the water with added, er, protein". The Register.
- ^ Matthew Beard (2004-03-02). ""The real thing? Coke's water comes straight from the tap with a cool mark-up of 3,000 per cent"". The Independent. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ Matthew Beard (2004-03-03). ""Inquiry into Coke's tap water"". The Independent. Retrieved on 2008-06-21.
- ^ "Coke recalls controversial water", BBC (2004-03-19).
[edit] External links
- Dasani website for U.S. residents
- Coke Announces Dasani Water in February 1999
- Coco-cola, Kellogg’s, Mattel and Takeda Pharmaceuticals top the list of international brands guilty of abusing consumer rights., an October 2007 article from Consumers International
- What's in that bottle?, a January 2003 article from Consumer Reports
- Is America's $8 Billion Bottled Water Industry a Fraud?, a December 2003 article by E/The Environmental Magazine
- Things get worse with Coke, an explanatory article from The Guardian newspaper.
- "Tap water wears a bow tie when it's put in a bottle and sold" News article about Dasani bottling plant operating during a drought
