Today, bottled water is a common beverage available in grocery stores, convenience stores and offices. But in 1871, Mountain Valley Spring Water Co. was the first to sell bottled water from coast-to-coast.
It’s signature clear green bottle continues to contain water from its original source — a spring in the Ozark Mountains. Using the water’s health-boosting benefits to market their product, the company has developed a business plan that also promotes a healthy environment.
The combination of capitalism and environmentalism is what drew the interest of Dr. Neil Oatsvall, a history instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and Arts. In a recent publication, Oatsvall examines the company’s ability to make a profit while promoting health while using a natural water source and protecting it from environmental harm.
“Bottling Nature’s Elixir: The Mountain Valley Spring Water Company, Environment, Health, and Capitalism” is the lead article in the Spring 2019 Arkansas Historical Quarterly, a publication of the Arkansas Historical Association.
“While we normally think of the interaction between nature and capitalism to be all bad — businesses take from the natural world and harm it to make a profit — I found that Mountain Valley is the rare company that has made its name based on natural purity and protecting the environment,” Oatsvall said.
“In their advertisements especially, Mountain Valley has tried to promote natural wholesomeness for how it can help human bodies and health.”
Oatsvall said no company is perfect, and Mountain Valley ran afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration twice decades ago — in 1914 and 1953. Each time the company shifted its marketing focus in ways that complied with laws and statutes while still focusing on nature and health.
The recent journal article is the second Oatsvall has published about Mountain Valley, previously studying the company’s advertising practices in “Advertising Indians,” which was published in the Summer 2018 edition of Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies.
Mountain Valley was a good subject for his academic studies for a few different reasons. Being locally situated helped his research tremendously, but it being a national company also meant he wasn’t chronicling a “mom and pop” organization.
“More than that, I think the ideas contained within the company’s advertisements and history speak to larger issues of how we humans should interact with the world around us, and how what it means to be healthy has changed over time,” Oatsvall said. “The specific subject may be bottled water, but the articles are more about how humans have navigated fundamental issues of nature and culture.”
Oatsvall said while Mountain Valley was not able to provide much support for his research, the contacts he made at the company have always been helpful. Most importantly, they always granted permission for Oatsvall to use images from the company in his articles, he said.
“Getting image permissions can be time consuming and expensive, but Mountain Valley was always gracious in that regard and let me use the images for free,” Oatsvall said.
Both of Oatsvall’s articles are available to read on his blog at https://asmsa.me/oatsvallmountainvalley.