Brooklyn, NY — Ounce Water, a bottled-water brand founded by Sons of Anarchy actor Theo Rossi and his wife Meghan McDermott in 2015, is in hot water over its controversial packaging that has upset a number of local Brooklyn residents. Their recently launched 40 Ounce water bottle allegedly resembles malt liquor bottles and could promote alcoholism to children.
They also use a marketing campaign believed to target Black consumers with some hint of hip-hop and a tagline “Get Ounced!”
“In a community that has been ravaged by alcohol and drugs, we are confused as to why someone would create a product that so closely resembles a malt liquor bottle,” members of Breukelen RISE wrote in a letter to the company. “We cannot get behind this product staying on the shelves in our community.”
The activists have first called for a pull out of the product from Canarsie’s Food World Supermarket. It has since been removed and replaced by their 20-ounce bottles. However, the damage won’t be forgotten by the people anymore.
“They called the store and said we were promoting alcoholism by selling water in that bottle,” said Food World manager, Kevin Chang, 38. “They said they’d come and protest unless we got rid of them. We called the manufacturer. They came and took the 40s and gave us the 20s. To be quite honest, it does look like an Olde English, but it’s plastic. It’s not glass. It’s just water. It says water on the contents.”
Aside from that, activists are also concerned about the bottle’s possibility to promote alcoholism to children. They believed that as children try to copy what adults do, the Ounce Water bottle could potentially put them to the path that would eventually lead them to trying real alcoholic drinks.
“It’s the same as play cigarettes. It’s grooming. It’s a precursor to making you comfortable holding that bottle,” Christine Gilliam, a longtime Breukelen Houses resident, told the New York Daily News. “It’s not what’s in the bottle — it’s the bottle itself. We would love it if everybody would drink more water, but nobody in my family is going to drink that water as long as it’s in that bottle.”
