This is why the campaign wasn’t named ‘Bottoms Up’.
First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a high school in the fittingly-named Watertown, Wis. today to promote her Partnership for a Healthier America’s latest initiative, ‘Drink Up’, which aims to encourage more consumption of … well, you know.
“Now, I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who might be asking — water? Really, water?” Obama asked rhetorically. “What’s the big deal? It’s not new. It doesn’t come in different colors or shapes. In fact, it doesn’t even have a color or a shape. And to be honest with you, not long ago, I might have been thinking the same thing.”
Today, though, her attention was on spreading the word about the perks of consuming more H2O — drinking more water helps individuals have more energy to do more, longer and with better focus, a press release preceding the event stated — and leveraging the help of the water community.
Yes, there is such thing as ‘the water community’.
“We’ve got everybody up here,” Obama said at the event. “We’ve got representatives from tap water. We’ve got water filter companies. We’ve got the bottled water companies with us. It was like a who’s who of water as I was meeting them today.
“It felt like I knew them personally — Dasani and Aquafina. Everybody was there,” Obama continued. “It’s like, I know you, I know you! I’ve drank you. It’s very empowering.”
Actress Eva Longoria, who is helping the First Lady tout the campaign, pointed to the benefits and simplicity of staying hydrated.
“Lots of people want to live healthier, but life gets busy and sometimes making the healthier choice can seem difficult,” Longoria said. “Drinking more water is a simple, easy choice that most people can make every day. I’m thrilled that so many organizations have come together today to help remind people that you are what you drink, and drinking water is you at your best.”
While there was widespread agreement that drinking water is, in fact, good, an unnamed White House official told Politico that ‘Drink Up’ isn’t designed to tell people how much.
“This campaign isn’t about drinking a certain amount of water a day (i.e., a certain number of glasses or ounces, etc.), we’re just asking people to drink more water,” the aide told the publication.
That same Politico story quoted several public health experts whose descriptions of the new campaign ranged from “bizarre” to “no-brainer”. They all agreed, however, that there is no hard scientific evidence to back the claim that boosting water intake provides a bevy of health benefits.
“There is strong indication, but there is not absolute scientific confidence, regarding the benefits of increased water consumption,” Dr. David Ludwig of Boston’s Children’s Hospital, who is supportive of the ‘Drink Up’ campaign, said.
