Glaceau Smartwater


Glaceau Smartwater is a brand of bottled water owned by The Coca-Cola Company. Introduced in 1996 in the United States, by 2016 it was one of the top five brands of bottled water in that country with sales worth nearly $830 million in 2017.
The brand is also available in other countries including the United Kingdom, France, India, Australia, Argentina, Chile, The United Arab Emirates, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Canada.

Product

Smartwater is manufactured by distillation. 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. There are no known benefits of distilling potable water combined with the readdition of ingredients lost in this process.

Pack and variants

In India, Smartwater is available in a 750ml PET bottle priced at Rs. 50. While globally, the brand has several variants such as Glaceau Smartwater Sparkling Green Apple, Lemon, and Apple & Cherry.

Marketing and sponsorship

Since 2008, actress Jennifer Aniston has been the ambassador for the brand globally and has been involved in a number of campaigns as the face of the product. She has been succeeded by Israeli actress Gal Gadot.
Smartwater was launched in India through its association with TED Talks India Nayi Soch as the official sponsor for property.

Criticism

In Germany and later also in the Netherlands, Smartwater was awarded the anti-award Goldener Windbeutel 2018 and Gouden Windei 2018 by the consumer rights advocacy group Foodwatch Germany for "The most brazen lie in food advertising in 2018". They 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 whatsoever, for as much as seven times the price of regular water. The Coca-Cola Company repudiated the criticism and said that it followed all applicable food labeling 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."