CAN an ad campaign turn bottled water into the new tobacco?

Taking a cue from antitobacco campaigns, Tappening, a group opposed to bottled water on environmental grounds, has introduced a campaign called “Lying in Advertising,” that positions bottled water companies as spreading corporate untruths.

One poster claims “Bottled Water Causes Blindness in Puppies,” while another reads “Bottled Water: 98% Melted Ice Caps. 2% Polar Bear Tears.”

“If bottled water companies can lie, we can too,” the posters read.

The “lies” in question here are about the source of bottled water. Eric Yaverbaum, a co-founder of Tappening, charged that some beverage companies did not list the source of their water  and were using only municipal water.

The Tappening effort is reminiscent of antismoking ads from Truth, the American Legacy Foundation campaign that fights youth smoking. But while the Tappening campaign has an environmental element, it has something the antitobacco lobbyists do not: a competing product of its own.