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Water ads are not selling water, they're selling plastic bottles.

So when people go to buy a bottle of water, they really want the bottle itself, and not what's inside it?

I'll have you know that our local utilities actually do run billboard campaigns to drink tap water. Yes, it's excellent and many people do :P

I've never seen an ad for fresh running water from the tap. Bottled water on the other hand, in addition to being overpriced, often contains microplastics.

Just pointing out that these do exist in some [1] places. But yeah, generally you're right.

[1] https://en.prostozkranu.krakow.pl

Drink tap watet campaign all over the Wrocław city https://pijkranowke.pl/#start

The water ads I've seen aren't for water from the tap, but are instead pushing bottled water which aren't quite the same thing.