Dasani
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Dasani is a brand of bottled water from the Coca-Cola company, launched in 1999, after the success of Aquafina. It is one of many brands of Coca-Cola water products sold around the world.
Dasani differs in composition between its different markets, for example it was intended to launch it as a natural spring water in France and Germany although this never went ahead after the bad publicity in the United Kingdom.
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United States
Dasani is local tap water that has been purified by reverse osmosis, with selected minerals added to modify its taste.
In early 2005, two flavored versions of Dasani were introduced to the public: Dasani with Lemon and Dasani with Raspberry. The two beverages are sweetened with sucralose.
Ingredients
Purified water, Magnesium sulfate, Potassium chloride, Salt
United Kingdom
Dasani was launched in the UK in January 2004. It was expensive compared to most bottled water brands, selling for around 90 pence for a 500 ml bottle.
In March 2004, it became public through an article in The Independent newspaper that the tap water of Sidcup was being treated, bottled, and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK. Although Coca-Cola never implied that the water was being sourced from a spring or other natural source, they marketed it as being especially "pure". Hence, the public revelation of it being simply treated tap water caused a media stir.
Two weeks later, UK authorities found a concentration of bromate in the product that could be considered harmful if drunk in large quantities. Dasani was potentially carcinogenic. Coca-Cola recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market on March 19, 2004. Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand on Continental Europe were announced to have been cancelled as well.
Coca-Cola added calcium chloride to Dasani in the UK to meet laws requiring calcium in all bottled waters. The company claims that the amount of bromide in the water led to the formation of unacceptable levels of bromate during the ozonation process used in purification. The U.S. version of Dasani does not contain calcium chloride.
Parallels were made with an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses in which the protagonists attempt to pass off tap water as spring water which fails when the local reservoir becomes polluted causing the bottled water to glow green. This is believed to have contributed to the severe negative reaction to Dasani by the press and public.
In 2004 the Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert liquid from the River Thames into Dasani, a transparent form of water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.
The withdrawal of the product and the resulting PR disaster has been likened to the New Coke fiasco.
External links
- Dasani website for U.S. residents (http://www.dasani.com/)
- Coke Announces Dasani Water (http://www.beverage-digest.com/editorial/990219.html) in February 1999
- What's in that bottle? (http://www.consumerreports.org/main/content/display_report.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=341437&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=333139&bmUID=1102980911290), a January 2003 article from Consumer Reports
- Things get worse with Coke (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1174127,00.html), an explanatory article from The Guardian newpaper.
- Dasani contains cancer-causing chemicals (http://www.newstarget.com/001028.html) 2005-04-05 from NewsTarget.com (http://www.newstarget.com)de:Dasani