1996; 28 years ago (1996) (Americas); 2014; 10 years ago (2014) (UK);[1] 2017; 7 years ago (2017) (India); 2018; 6 years ago (2018) (The Netherlands, Russia)
Markets
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India, Middle East, USA, UK, China
Glaceau Smartwater (stylized as smartwater) is a brand of bottled water owned by Energy Brands, a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company.[2][3] Introduced in 1996 as Ice Mountain Spring Water and Glaceau Mineral Water in the United States, it became known as Smart Water in 1998.[4][5] By 2016, it was one of the top five most sold brands of bottled water in that country[6] with sales worth nearly $830 million in 2017.[7]
The brand is also available in other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada,[8] Chile, China,[9] Croatia, France,[10] Hungary[11][12] India,[13] Malaysia, Romania, Serbia,[14] Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.[15]
Product
Smartwater is manufactured by the process of distillation.[16] This process removes most inorganic impurities, such as naturally dissolved minerals, but may let low boiling-point organic matter through. Afterwards, certain mineral electrolytes such as potassium, calcium and magnesium are added back.[17] There are no known benefits of distillingpotable water combined with the readdition of ingredients lost in this process.[18] The Smartwater bottle (not the water itself) is used in ultralight backpacking because it's relatively light, strong, and compact, compared with other disposable water bottles.[19]
Pack and variants
Globally, the brand has several variants[20] introduced in 2017, such as Glaceau Smartwater Sparkling Green Apple,[21] Lemon, and Berry & Kiwi.[22][23] In 2020, four new combination flavors were introduced: Cucumber Lime, Strawberry Blackberry, Pineapple Kiwi, and Watermelon Mint.[24]
Marketing and sponsorship
Starting in 2008, American actress Jennifer Aniston was the ambassador for the brand globally[25] and was involved in a number of campaigns as the face of the product.[26] She was succeeded in 2020 by Israeli actress Gal Gadot.[27]
In June 2022, Zendaya was announced as the global brand ambassador of Glaceau SmartWater and the face of its new campaign "Smart Solutions: Global Water Challenge (GWC)".[28]
The packaging featured an image of a fantail goldfish; earlier packagings featured an otter.
In 2018, Smartwater was awarded the German Goldener Windbeutel ("Golden Windbag") anti-award by the consumer rights advocacy group Foodwatch Germany for "the most brazen lie in food advertising" that year. The group said that Smartwater is "nothing but ordinary water" sold by advertising a "scientifically-sounding but completely unnecessary production process" which yields no proven nutritional benefits, for as much as seven times the price of regular water.[18] The product also won the Dutch Gouden Windei ("Golden Windbag") prize that year.[30]
The Coca-Cola Company repudiated the criticism and said that it followed all applicable food labelling regulations in a transparent manner, that Foodwatch had nominated Coca-Cola in order to attract attention to itself, and that "the success of the water with consumers proved that they liked the product for the taste."[31]
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