All the Way from Fiji

This is not that kind of trip. It's a trip courtesy of Fiji Water advertising as seen on CNNMoney.com. A misadventure in marketing that had the Los Angeles-based bottled water company use a slightly offensive headline: "The Label Says Fiji Because It's Not Bottled in Cleveland."

The city of Cleveland took exception; city officials retaliated by having the bottled water tested revealing that Fiji contains 6.3 micrograms of arsenic per liter, while the city's tap water has none. Ouch!

Does it matter that Fiji countered by saying that its own tests found less than 2 micrograms per liter? Who would you believe? And why go there? Wasn't the story about natural artesian water good enough? Isn't the product packaging attractive enough?

I was sitting next to a professional communicator last evening at a networking event and during our conversation I learned that her company works for the Philadelphia Water Department -- she writes the technical copy, edits the content to understandable language, and designs an array of reports about the water quality for various constituencies.

During our conversation we talked about how Philadelphia, which at one point was a great manufacturing center thanks to its ideal location on the banks of two rivers (i.e. cheap transportation and power) was the first American city to consider the delivery of safe water as a municipal responsibility.

I was fascinated to hear about her work because I know how challenging it can be to explain to engineers and scientists that what they care about may not be exactly what the people who read their reports want to know. It's always a matter of matching the message to the audience.

A little sensitivity and some research would have revealed the marketing department at Fiji similar information about the city of Cleveland, I'm sure. Water is a delicate matter, let an Italian tell you -- we invented bottled water and it comes in dark glass bottles with bubbles.

Comments

[Roger von Oech]

All you say about Fiji doing diligence about a municiplaity's water supply is true.

One thing not mentioned in your post is that many people still have the memory of two things about two bodies of water very close to Cleveland: (1) the Cuyahoga River caught "fire" in the 1960s, and (2) Lake Erie was very close to being declared a "dead" lake about the same time. Of course, things are much better now for both the lake and the river, but people's memories are long.

[Matt Dickman]

As a resident of Cleveland I can tell you that the drinking water here is actually quite good. As Roger correctly points out, there have been a few water-related problems here which make us an easy target. But that was a long time ago when steel was the lifeblood of the city and environmental regulations didn't really exist. Cleveland is now a phenomenal city and I recommend anyone visit. I'll even give you a personal tour.

Fiji used the stereotype of Cleveland without doing the necessary due diligence. Clevelanders are, as I'm sure are Philadelphians, proud of their city. Stores here stopped stocking the product and I think overall it hurt their long-term credibility.

I'm off to drink a nice fresh glass of Cleveland's own. Cheers!

[gianandrea facchini]

lately I saw a Tim (mobile phone carrier) spot with De Sica singing in an opera theatre. Sophia Loren acted as part of the audience, disappointed with his performance. He did turn his head to a member of the cast and said: who cares? she is a ciociara!! ( a quote from a famous movie with Sophia).
A groups of majors from that area complained a lot about the commercial.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger -- pointing out a delicate matter for a community can spell disaster quickly and you can bet the community will rally around its own. As Matt explains, the topic was really touchy for the folks in Cleveland and Fiji did not earn any friends by alluding to it, even unwittingly.

Matt -- thank you for joining this conversation. This advert and the ensuing discussion here are perfect examples of unintended consequences. And it has been proven that tap water can rival bottled.

Gianandrea -- as in the story you shared, it seldom pays off to demean, devalue, or put down something or someone else to look better; one hardly shines when engaging in those tactics.

[Stephen Denny]

Valeria: I love this story. Love it. I'm in the final stages of a post that this animates very well (so I'll link to you, if that's OK) -- if you're going to call someone out, be damn sure you're right. By all means, if you're better head to head, go ahead and force the comparison. If you're wrong, or hadn't thought through all the possible rammifications, watch out for the nasty comeback. Thanks -- great story!