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''THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE'' CAMPAIGN CHALLENGES PEPSI AT ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING For Immediate Release: Contacts by cell phone in Plano: Plano, TX--Today, corporate accountability advocates are challenging Pepsi executives at the corporation's annual shareholders' meeting. Corporate Accountability International's "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign challenges the misleading marketing of the three largest bottled water corporations--Pepsi and its competitors Coke and Nestlé. Through extensive media coverage in national and major regional outlets, the campaign message has reached millions of people in the past six weeks as over one thousand people in twenty cities across the U.S. have taken the Tap Water Challenge. As Pepsi attempts to compensate for weak soft drink sales by expanding its bottled water market, the corporation faces growing resistance. Across the U.S., people have been shocked to learn Pepsi's popular Aquafina water brand actually uses tap water as its source. Avid Aquafina drinkers are among the 50% of all Americans who drink bottled water. One in six people in the U.S. drink only bottled water instead of drinking water from the tap, even though gallon for gallon it can cost more than gasoline. According to Corporate Accountability International, this trend is driven by misleading advertising. Protests at Coke's shareholders' meeting two weeks ago demonstrated people's increasing concern about corporations buying and selling water. "As global pressure on Coke grows we're highlighting that Pepsi is another heavyweight player. Pepsi promotes Aquafina water as pure, safe, healthy and superior to tap water, even though bottled water is less regulated than tap water, and sometimes less safe," says Corporate Accountability International Associate Campaigns Director Gigi Kellett. "This is about more than price gouging. Our human right to water is at stake," says Polaris Institute Water Program Director Karl Flecker. According to the United Nations, two out of three people will not have access to water in less than two decades. "Problems of water scarcity and access loom larger as a profit-driven industry increasingly controls our water supplies," continues Flecker. Supplying water is currently a $400 billion a year business, 30% larger than the pharmaceutical industry. "Think Outside the Bottle" highlights bottled water as the most visible example of increasing corporate control of water. Even though bottled water accounts for a fraction of the total volume of water used for consumption, sanitation, and manufacturing, people spent $100 billion on bottled water in 2005. That's three times more than the amount of money necessary to reach the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to water by 2015, and seven times more than the international community has committed to hitting that goal. # # # Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations--like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria--to stop abusive actions. For more information visit www.stopcorporateabuse.org.
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