Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Waters Available in the Store

About a year ago I took this picture of water in refrigeration at Emart. (There are even more brands available now!) Korea has really developed a fixation on bottled water, and yes, they should have some concern on what they drink since flouride, chlorine and who knows what is added to the water supply piped into homes and apartments. Although throughout the city and in homes there are many kinds of water filters, and portable filters are available for the small and economizing household, there really is a hyper sense of "drink bottled water for your health" here. Most of the brands are Korean, e.g. DMZ suggesting the "pure and unpolluted waters" where few people live between North and South Korea, SamDaSoo which is supposedly Korea's best brand, and Jeju which is supposedly from the "pristine southern island" of Jeju but which, according to my students, is now processed in Seoul. Some of the more exotic waters on this shelf alone are the Evian and Fiji. The water from the deep and "unpolluted waters" of Hawaii might also be here too. Marketing water is very lucrative, and it certainly looks like a lot of companies are cashing on people's sense of health, which the media seems to control and then benefit by.
 

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