United Kingdom
Dasani was launched in the UK in January 2004.
In March 2004, it became public through an article in The Independent newspaper that the tap water of Sidcup was being treated, bottled and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK. Although Coca-Cola never implied that the water was being sourced from a spring or other natural source, they marketed it as being especially "pure". Hence, the public revelation of it being simply treated tap water caused a media stir.
The media made mocking parallels with a popular episode of the well-known BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses in which the protagonist Del Boy attempts to pass off tap water as spring water. This scheme fails when the local reservoir becomes polluted (also because of Del) causing the bottled water to glow yellow. The episode is believed to have contributed to the severe negative reaction to Dasani by the press and public. Clips from this episode were shown in news reports and other programmes relating to the Dasani flop.
Two weeks later, UK authorities found a concentration of bromate in the product that could be considered harmful if drunk in large quantities. Dasani was potentially carcinogenic. Coca-Cola recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market on March 19, 2004.[1] Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand on Continental Europe were announced to have been cancelled as well. Ironically, bromate was not present in the tap water before Coca-Cola's "purification" process. During that process the bromate was produced it from the tap water's harmless bromide.
Coca-Cola added calcium chloride to Dasani in the UK to meet laws requiring calcium in all bottled waters. The company claims that the amount of bromide in the water led to the formation of unacceptable levels of bromate during the ozonation process used in purification. The U.S. version of Dasani does not contain calcium chloride.
In 2004 the Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to The Coca-Cola Company for "using advanced technology to convert liquid from the River Thames into Dasani, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers".
The withdrawal of the product and the resulting PR disaster has been likened to the New Coke fiasco. Dasani never made it to Ireland or Northern Ireland, as Coca-Cola Bottlers (Ulster) produce the Deep River Rock brand of water for sale in the island.
there was something cancerous in it and they never bothered to re-launch it as far as i know...
