Document Type
Article
Abstract
There has been considerable recent criticism of the bottled water industry from professional and popular as well as scholarly sources. This criticism disputes the veracity of a brand's claim to a pure and natural source, as well as the standards for regulation. This paper adds another factor to the criticism of bottled "natural springs" water, emphasizing the magical operation implicit in the rhetoric for the packaging of bottled water. The paper examines the natural and supernatural semiotics of the commercial packaging for bottled "natural springs" water, and identifies a correlation between the semiotic function of the ancient Germanic rune lagu and the semiotic function of the figuration used in the packaging for bottled water brands such as Deer Park, Arrowhead, and Belu. The paper suggests that the packaging serves the same semiotic purpose as the rune. That is, the packaging serves as both sign of the act of access, and device for the act of access. In the packaging's visual rhetoric, water serves as signifier for both H2O (a natural resource) and spiritual refreshment and inspiration (a supernatural resource), and the packaging claims to offer a direct access to a natural setting at which the consumer can obtain both. In effect, like the rune lagu, the sign constituted by bottle-and-label packaging claims to perform a magical operation, in offering access to a source that is not actually present. To demonstrate the operation of bottled water packaging as both figure and device, this paper first reviews the relevant natural and supernatural significations of "water," applying Roland Barthes’ semiotics of myth to a reading of the significations of water on which the rhetoric of bottled water packaging relies. The paper then argues that the rune lagu operates as both sign and device of access to the natural and supernatural water source. Third, by analyzing the packaging semiotics of several bottled water brands, the paper demonstrates that the packaging is also intended to function as both sign and device. Finally, the paper suggests that an awareness within the public discourse concerning bottled water of the packaging’s operation as device would allow for a more comprehensive dispute of the veracity of marketing claims made by the bottled water industry.
Repository Citation
Fusch, Daniel. "Lagu and Belu: The Semiotics of Bottled Water Packaging." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 6, no. 3, 2006, pp. 1–23. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol6/iss3/8
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Graphic Communications Commons, Marketing Commons, Rhetoric Commons, Sales and Merchandising Commons