Water, water everywhere...

The marketing/advertising phenomenon of the last decade is bottled water, on which Americans spent $11 billion in the 12 months of 2006.
Comedian George Carlin once rhetorically asked, “What happened in this country that now, suddenly, everyone is walking around with their own personal bottle of water? When did we get so thirsty in America? Is everybody so dehydrated they have to have their own portable supply of fluids with them at all times? Get a drink before you leave the house!”
A review in the New York Times of a new book by Elizabeth Royte, titled Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, points out that Pepsi - which owns Aquafina - "spent $20 million suggesting that Americans 'drink more water.' That year (2006) we drank... about a billion bottles a week."
As you may know, there's a backlash on against bottled water and Royte treats the topic in depth - marketing and advertising are only part of the story.
Find the review here and you might want to drop by the library for the book. I'm going to.