"When I started, there was this little refrigerator, and it was stocked with amazing drinks,” said one ad-sales source. “Pellegrino, Orangina, Red Bull. And like the water wasn’t Poland Spring, it was like Fiji. I remember when I started working here, I emailed everyone I know and I was like, ‘I have to tell you about the drinks!’”
But then in December, a few months after Condé Nast ordered publishers and editors to cut 5 percent from their budgets, the drink supply emptied out. That Fiji water turned into Poland Spring. Worse, instead of the fridge, the water bottles were stowed in a warm closet.
Mmm. Bottled water that has been stashed for who-knows-how-long in a warm environment. NOT my idea of tasty. Neither is the thought of drinking water that has been shipped thousands of miles farther in a bottle that has twice the plastic-- that would be Fiji.
Gawker beat me to pointing out that if only Condé Nast had waited they could have cut the Fiji water for the sake of virtue, not just to save money: this month's Mother Jones has an excellent article exposing the corporate, environmental and social evils of Fiji water. Of course, even before the article it didn't take much to figure out that an American company importing water from a tiny island nation in thick plastic could not be a good thing, no matter how much greenwashing the company did.
I wonder if the folks at Condé Nast know about Kleen Kanteens. I may not get to see Greydon Carter in my workplace lunchroom, but I do get to drink freshly drawn, crisp Croton Reservoir water from my sleek, über-cool stainless steel Kanteen. Lucky me!
Eventually, I do think this idea will take hold in the popular media and society at large: drinking and eating from plastic is disgusting. But I wonder how long it will take.
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