Dasani
Encyclopedia
Dasani 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 bottled water sold around the world.
Dasani water differs in composition between its national markets. Dasani has a strong product placement marketing campaign, with the product appearing in movies such as You Got Served
and TV series such as The West Wing. The name Dasani is an original creation - it was chosen when consumer testing showed that the name was relaxing and suggested "pureness" and "replenishment".
In 2010, in a bid to counteract falling sales and symbolic bans on bottled water, The Coca-Cola Company
announced they would be distributing Dasani water in new packaging made of 30% plant based materials. Unlike other plant based packaging the bottles are compatible with standard recycling plants and represent up to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to standard water bottles (though this still represents 2000 times the energy usage of tap water).
it using the process of reverse osmosis
, and adds trace amounts of mineral
s, including magnesium sulfate
(Epsom salt), potassium chloride
and table salt
(sodium chloride).
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, 24, and 32-pack; and the 24 oz 6-pack.
The Dasani brand includes flavored water, which use the sweetener sucralose
(sold under the Tate & Lyle
brand name "Splenda
") as a sweetener. The flavors are lemon
, grape
, blueberry
, and strawberry
. The flavored varieties are sold as 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 added vitamins and some different flavors Pomegranate-Blackberry, Orange-Tangerine, Kiwi-Strawberry, and Lemon-Lime flavors. Dasani Plus comes in a 12 oz bottle.
except Quebec
in 2000, a year after launching in the United States. The brand was made available in Quebec
shortly afterwards, in April 2001.
There are five 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 first source of Dasani water in Canada was Calgary, Alberta. A second bottling plant was later opened in Brampton, Ontario. The Calgary and Brampton plants produce Coca-Cola's plain-water (Dasani) and sugar-water (soft drinks) products. The company's administrative and marketing activities continue to be based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dasani has <35 ppm of total dissolved mineral salts .
In early 2005, two flavored versions of Dasani were introduced: Dasani With Lemon and Dasani With Raspberry. Dasani with Strawberry has since been introduced. The flavored beverages are sweetened with sucralose.
ian market in mid-2003, renamed as Aquarius. It was introduced to the Chile
an market in 2005, including releases in regular, lemon and tangerine
flavours. 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 Peru
.
on 10 February 2004. The product launch was labelled "a disaster", a "fiasco" and a "PR catastrophe".
Early advertisements referred to Dasani as "bottled spunk" or featured the tagline "can't live without spunk". These slogans were used seemingly oblivious to the fact that spunk is slang
for semen
in the UK.
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
, a suburban development in London. By early March 2004, the mainstream press had picked up on the story and it became widely reported that Sidcup tap water was being treated, bottled and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK. 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.
Richard May, Chief Publicity Officer of Dasani, was said to be disappointed that the water had not been more successful.
The media made mocking parallels with a 1992 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". 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
, a suspected human carcinogen
, in the product that could be considered harmful if consumed in large quantities. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market. Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand to Continental Europe
were announced to have been cancelled as well. 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 in France
and Germany
, although this never went ahead after bad publicity in the United Kingdom
.
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
of bottled water
Bottled water
Bottled water is drinking water packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not...
from the Coca-Cola company, launched in 1999, after the success of Aquafina
Aquafina
Aquafina is a brand of bottled water products produced by PepsiCo, Inc., consisting of both unflavored and flavored water. The Aquafina brand name is also licensed for use on multiple skin care products, including lip balm and wrinkle cream...
(produced by Coca-Cola-rival PepsiCo
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...
). It is one of many brands of Coca-Cola bottled water sold around the world.
Dasani water differs in composition between its national markets. Dasani has a strong product placement marketing campaign, with the product appearing in movies such as You Got Served
You Got Served
You Got Served is a film written and directed by Chris Stokes, manager of its stars, recording artist Omarion, Marques Houston and the members of boy band B2K. The plot concerns a group of dancers, who take part in a street dancing competition...
and TV series such as The West Wing. The name Dasani is an original creation - it was chosen when consumer testing showed that the name was relaxing and suggested "pureness" and "replenishment".
In 2010, in a bid to counteract falling sales and symbolic bans on bottled water, The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
announced they would be distributing Dasani water in new packaging made of 30% plant based materials. Unlike other plant based packaging the bottles are compatible with standard recycling plants and represent up to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to standard water bottles (though this still represents 2000 times the energy usage of tap water).
United States
Coca-Cola uses tap water from local municipal water supplies, filtersFilter (water)
A water filter removes impurities from water by means of a fine physical barrier, a chemical process or a biological process. Filters cleanse water to various extents for irrigation, drinking water, aquariums, and swimming pools.-Methods of filtration:...
it using the process of reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...
, and adds trace amounts of mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s, including magnesium sulfate
Magnesium sulfate
Magnesium sulfate is a chemical compound containing magnesium, sulfur and oxygen, with the formula MgSO4. It is often encountered as the heptahydrate epsomite , commonly called Epsom salt, from the town of Epsom in Surrey, England, where the salt was distilled from the springs that arise where the...
(Epsom salt), potassium chloride
Potassium chloride
The chemical compound potassium chloride is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. In its pure state, it is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance, with a crystal structure that cleaves easily in three directions. Potassium chloride crystals are...
and table salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
(sodium chloride).
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, 24, and 32-pack; and the 24 oz 6-pack.
The Dasani brand includes flavored water, which use the sweetener sucralose
Sucralose
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body and therefore it is non-caloric. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose , twice as sweet as saccharin, and 3.3...
(sold under the Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle plc is a British-based multinational agribusiness. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index as of 20 June 2011...
brand name "Splenda
Splenda
Splenda is the commercial name and registered trade mark of a sucralose-based artificial sweetener derived from sugar, owned by the British company Tate & Lyle. Sucralose was discovered by Tate & Lyle and researchers at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, in 1976...
") as a sweetener. The flavors are lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
, grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
, blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, and strawberry
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
. The flavored varieties are sold as 20 fluid ounce
Fluid ounce
A fluid ounce is a unit of volume equal to about 28.4 mL in the imperial system or about 29.6 mL in the US system. The fluid ounce is distinct from the ounce, which measures mass...
bottles, 500 ml
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
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 added vitamins and some different flavors Pomegranate-Blackberry, Orange-Tangerine, Kiwi-Strawberry, and Lemon-Lime flavors. Dasani Plus comes in a 12 oz bottle.
Canada
Dasani was launched in all provinces of CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
except Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in 2000, a year after launching in the United States. The brand was made available in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
shortly afterwards, in April 2001.
There are five common Dasani bottle sizes sold in Canada: 300 mL, 500mL, 591 mL, 710 mL, 1 L
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
, and 1.5 L. Bottles are sold individually and in packs of 6, 12, and 24.
The first source of Dasani water in Canada was Calgary, Alberta. A second bottling plant was later opened in Brampton, Ontario. The Calgary and Brampton plants produce Coca-Cola's plain-water (Dasani) and sugar-water (soft drinks) products. The company's administrative and marketing activities continue to be based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dasani has <35 ppm of total dissolved mineral salts .
In early 2005, two flavored versions of Dasani were introduced: Dasani With Lemon and Dasani With Raspberry. Dasani with Strawberry has since been introduced. The flavored beverages are sweetened with sucralose.
Latin America
Dasani was introduced to the BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian market in mid-2003, renamed as Aquarius. It was introduced to the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an market in 2005, including releases in regular, lemon and tangerine
Tangerine
__notoc__The tangerine is an orange-colored citrus fruit which is closely related to the Mandarin orange . Taxonomically, it should probably be formally named as a subspecies or variety of Citrus reticulata; further work seems to be required to ascertain its correct scientific name...
flavours. It was released in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
in late 2005 with their three regular flavors. In 2005, Dasani was introduced in the Argentinian market with the flavours peach
Peach
The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
, lemon, citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
and regular. It was also released under the name Ciel
Ciel (beverage)
Ciel is a brand of bottled water owned by The Coca-Cola Company which is bottled and sold in Mexico, Angola, and Morocco. Coca-Cola Mexico introduced Ciel in 1996 in the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Durango, San Luis Potosi and Coahuila....
Dasani in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in four flavors: lemon-cucumber, papaya-carrot, grapefruit and mandarin-green tea, but it was discontinued in 2006. It was also released in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
United Kingdom
Dasani was launched in the UKUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 10 February 2004. The product launch was labelled "a disaster", a "fiasco" and a "PR catastrophe".
Early advertisements referred to Dasani as "bottled spunk" or featured the tagline "can't live without spunk". These slogans were used seemingly oblivious to the fact that spunk is slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
for semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
in the UK.
Prior to the launch, an article in The Grocer
The Grocer
The Grocer is a British market leading magazine devoted to grocery sales, published by William Reed Business Media. It has been published since 1862. Its readership encompasses every aspect of the industry, from directors of the large multiples to independent retailers...
trade magazine had mentioned that the source of the Dasani brand water was in fact treated tap water from Sidcup
Sidcup
Sidcup is a district in South East London in the London Borough of Bexley and small parts of the district in the London Borough of Greenwich.Located south east of Charing Cross, Sidcup is bordered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bromley and Kent County Council, and whilst now part of...
, a suburban development in London. By early March 2004, the mainstream press had picked up on the story and it became widely reported that Sidcup tap water was being treated, bottled and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK. Although Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
never implied that the water was being sourced from a spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
or other natural source, they marketed it as being especially "pure". This led the Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest...
to request Hillingdon
London Borough of Hillingdon
The London Borough of Hillingdon is the westernmost borough in Greater London, England. The borough's population was recorded as 243,006 in the 2001 Census. The borough incorporates the former districts of Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the...
trading standards
Trading Standards
Trading Standards is the name given to local authority departments in the UK formerly known as Weights and Measures. These departments investigate commercial organisations that carry out trade in unethical ways or outside the scope of the law.-History:...
officers to launch an investigation into whether the claim was accurate.
Richard May, Chief Publicity Officer of Dasani, was said to be disappointed that the water had not been more successful.
The media made mocking parallels with a 1992 episode
Mother Nature's Son (Only Fools and Horses)
"Mother Nature's Son" is a Christmas special episode of the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 25 December 1992.-Synopsis:...
of the well-known BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
, in which protagonist Del Boy
Del Boy
Derek Edward Trotter, better known as "Del Boy", is the fictional lead character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and one of the main characters of its prequel, Rock & Chips...
attempts to pass off local tap water as bottled "Peckham Spring". 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
Bromate
The bromate anion, BrO, is a bromine-based oxoanion. A bromate is a chemical compound that contains this ion. Examples of bromates include sodium bromate, , and potassium bromate, .Bromates are formed many different ways in municipal drinking water...
, a suspected human carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
, in the product that could be considered harmful if consumed in large quantities. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market. Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand to Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
were announced to have been cancelled as well. 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
Bromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
.
Coca-Cola intended to launch Dasani in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, although this never went ahead after bad publicity in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
External links
- Dasani website for U.S. residents
- Coca-cola, Kellogg’s, Mattel and Takeda Pharmaceuticals top the list of international brands guilty of abusing consumer rights., an October 2007 article from Consumers InternationalConsumers InternationalConsumers International is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers...
- What's in that bottle?, a January 2003 article from Consumer ReportsConsumer ReportsConsumer Reports is an American magazine published monthly by Consumers Union since 1936. It publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory. It also publishes cleaning and general buying guides...
- 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 GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
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