Marketing messages reminding consumers of mortality may influence bottled water consumption

The bottled water industry is a major contributor to plastic pollution and unsustainable natural resource extraction; however, it has a vested interest in encouraging consumers to drink more bottled water. This study suggests that a concept known as “terror management” may drive behavior choices and change. Terror Management Theory (TMT) asserts that people actively suppress feelings of fear or anxiety about death and that this act of suppression shapes behaviors. Some marketing strategies try to recall people's anxieties about death by using images and language that remind them of their mortality. In doing so, these marketing strategies bring the topic of death and mortality into the forefront of consumers' thoughts, thereby increasing mortality salience (MS). When consumers receive MS reminders, they are more likely to be drawn to goods and services marketed as healthy and life-prolonging. This study compared pro-bottled water advertisements (from the bottled water industry) to anti-bottled water advertisements (from government and non-governmental organizations) to investigate whether either set of advertisements used MS reminders to influence water consumption behaviors.

To compare the marketing strategies of pro- and anti-bottled water campaigns, the authors searched the internet to identify websites, photographs, and videos from various Canadian corporate, NGO, and government advertisements. They identified and analyzed 193 campaign documents, keeping only those documents that aimed to persuade consumers to drink a particular kind of water and were produced after 1980. By using these filters, they decided to analyze 67 documents from 21 campaigns; half of the selected documents were pro-bottled water and half were anti-bottled water. Some advertisements were national in scope, while others were local and focused more narrowly on Ontario and British Columbia. The authors looked for TMT and MS indicators in the advertisements and categorized text and images accordingly. Once they categorized indicators from all documents, they analyzed the similarities and differences between the two sets of advertisements.

Overall, the study found MS messages in both pro- and anti-bottled water advertisements. The authors found that most anti- (83%) and pro-bottled water (78%) advertisements appealed to consumers' self-esteem; these appeals were related to MS, as they helped minimize consumers' anxieties about death by offering them ways to live happy, long lives. Most of these self-esteem messages had environmental themes, with anti- messages centered on the detriments of plastic and unsustainable resource extraction and pro- messages focused on company investments in sustainability and use of sustainable practices. The pro- and anti-bottled water campaigns diverged for other types of self-esteem messages. Where they differed, the anti-bottled water advertisements tended to appeal to consumers' sense of ethical responsibility and frugality. These advertisements targeted consumers, who, for environmental and ethical reasons, had already chosen to consume tap water. The pro-bottled water advertisements, on the other hand, appealed to consumers' lifestyle desires and to their environmental ethics. These advertisements appealed to consumers' desires to be healthy, vibrant, and wealthy while also highlighting company investments in sustainability and use of sustainable practices. In doing so, the pro-bottled water campaigns likely reached a broader audience than the anti-bottled water campaigns.

The authors also found that both pro- and anti-bottled water advertisements appealed to consumers' national pride and environmental ethics, thereby giving consumers justification for their worldviews regardless of their water consumption behaviors. However, while the anti-bottled water advertisements generally criticized the bottled water industry for being environmentally irresponsible—a tactic the authors claim was unlikely to persuade a bottled water drinker to switch to tap water—the pro-bottled water advertisements were generally more positive. Additionally, the pro-bottled water advertisements took advantage of support for “local” by encouraging consumers to buy locally sourced water and provided a wider variety of messages in support of more diverse worldviews. The strategic appeal to people with diverse worldviews and the positive spin of the messages likely enabled the pro-bottled water advertisements to resonate with a wider audience than did the anti-bottled water advertisements.

The authors found that pro-bottled water advertisements appealed to consumers' desires to live well and make healthy choices with greater frequency than did anti-bottled water advertisements. Pro-bottled water advertisements also did a better job of making people aware of their mortality and then offering ways to manage death anxiety. Anti-bottled water advertisements also increased mortality salience; however, their messages to assuage death anxiety were far less compelling (from a Terror Management Theory perspective) than the pro-bottled water advertisements.

This study did not investigate or measure any changes in water consumption behaviors. In addition, the study did not consider whether or how the advertisements changed behaviors. While the authors applied TMT, they acknowledge other theories of behavior change that may be more salient. Additionally, the results of this study are specific to Canada; another study examining advertisements in a different location may produce different results.

The authors suggest that anti-bottled water advertisements might be too narrowly focused with messaging that is too negative. They recommend that anti-bottled water campaigns consider expanding their messages to reach a broader audience and speak to a wider variety of worldviews. Like pro-bottled water campaigns, anti-bottled water campaigns could appeal to consumers' appreciation for local or their desire for healthy and long lives. The authors also recommend that anti-bottled water campaigns shift their messaging to be more positive and uplifting. These shifts might make anti-bottled water advertisements appeal to a wider audience and might inspire some bottled water drinkers to consider switching to tap water.