Published: July 29, 2007 01:22 am      

DICK LUCINSKI: Tapping for perfect information

“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

– P.T. Barnum, showman/entrepreneur



That quote from the 19th-century version of Jerry Springer came to mind last week when it was revealed that a popular brand of bottled water really comes out of a tap.

The Associated Press reported that PepsiCo Inc., the bottler of Aquafina, has agreed change to the labels on that product to reflect that it is essentially tap water.

The news report said the company had been pressured by an advocacy group known as Corporate Accountability International. That organization said the label, picturing snow-capped mountains, gave the impression that the source was spring water. Aquafina has said on the label that the product was “Bottled At The Source P.W.S.” P.W.S. stands for public water sources. Now that abbreviation will be spelled out.

It’s surprising how long it has taken for this fact to come to light. Perhaps it’s because people don’t really want to know that what they sometimes pay a buck or more a bottle for can be had for less that a penny, delivered to your home via your kitchen sink.

The revelation does, however, serve as an example of a larger concept. It’s the idea economists like to call perfect information. Because information dissemination, like life, is a human endeavor, it is never going to be perfect. Sometimes we get things wrong, sometimes we de-emphasize what some might consider important and play up what others consider trivial. But, overall, we in the news business do our level best to deliver the information you need to make intelligent choices.

That’s the idea behind perfect information. The closer you get to having all the information you need, the better decisions you will make; not better by my standards or your neighbor’s or your congressman’s, but by yours. Put all those decisions by all the people together and you have a marketplace, whether if be a marketplace for goods, for services or of ideas. That’s how a free market works.

So if you think all bottled water comes from natural springs or babbling brooks and it’s hand-gathered by elves in pristine woods full of bunnies and squirrels, and that’s why it costs so much, think again. Some of it might. But, as the Aquafina labels will soon reflect, a lot of it is drawn from public water sources, run through filters, pumped into bottles and delivered to stores and vending machines.

Does that make it a bad thing? Of course not. If it tastes good to you and is refreshing, you’ll probably continue to buy it.

Aquafina is the second-best selling brand of bottled water in America, capturing about 15 percent of the $15 billion annual sales, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest. The leader, with 20 percent, is Coca-Cola’s Dasani. It also originates from municipal tap water sources in various U.S. cities.

So we owe a word of thanks to Corporate Accountability International for adding to the wealth of knowledge that gets us that much closer to the concept of perfect information and, ultimately, to better decisions made by all of us.

Dick Lucinski is the managing editor of the Niagara Gazette. His columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays.