FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Fern Edison         845-679-6319

TAPPENING—the “Campaign to Make Tap Water Cool Again”—
ANNOUNCES USE OF STRICTLY BPA-FREE PRODUCTS

Pro-tap water campaign looks towards a greener, safer future with reusable water bottles  

(NEW YORK; July 28 2008)  Tappening co-founders Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo have been instrumental in helping forge a national movement that encourages people to make tap their water of choice. The campaign (which Adweek has called “a form of business philanthropy…founded to right a perceived wrong”) and its website--www.tappening.com--both launched last November, have served to educate the public on the pros and cons of tap vs. bottled water.  In an effort to self-finance the campaign, the founders introduced their own line of reusable water bottles. To their surprise, this self-financing attempt turned into a profitable business venture.  Their entire initial inventory of 39,000 “Think Global, Drink Local” and “What’s Tappening?” plastic reusable Tappening bottles sold out in 36 hours!  To date, over 200,000 Tappening bottles have been sold.

Today, the high profile campaign has announced that Tappening’s bottles are 100% BPA-free.  BPA has been reported to be a potentially harmful chemical emitted through polycarbonate plastic products.. When news of BPA’s potential risks first surfaced, Tappening swiftly introduced alternative stainless steel water bottles on their site that became their best-selling product.  Now, Tappening is exclusively selling the stainless steel bottles--available in four colors--on its site, and has totally discontinued the sale of plastic bottles. Says co-founder Yaverbaum, “while there’s still some uncertainty about the veracity of the reports regarding the dangers of BPA in plastic bottles, there’s no question we were going to err on the side of safety and caution.”

The Tappening duo are veteran marketing professionals who admittedly know little about product manufacturing and distribution.  They began their campaign with intentions to educate the public,  in part by clarifying misconceptions about the virtues of bottled water that they believe thirty years of product marketing have created and sustained. “Typically, people who drink bottled water are doing so because they believe it's superior to tap water, because that’s what billions of dollars of bottled water advertising has claimed or implied,” says DiMassimo. “The thing is, that's simply not true.  Studies have in fact reported that 40% of bottled water comes from the same source as tap water.”

Tappening also contends that the bottled water industry results in an extreme waste of fossil fuels, while causing unneccesary pollution and stress on the environment.  Yaverbaum states, “28 billion bottles of water are purchased every year in the United States.   That’s 17 million barrels of oil and 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide in the air, for what?  For something that we get right out of our tap at home.”   Plus, the co-founders emphasize that only about 20% of the bottles purchased get recycled; the other 80% are buried in our landfills or floating in our oceans, causing risk to marine life.

Tappening’s highly chronicled and informative website features a National Tap Water Quality Database as well as scores of articles written about the bottled vs. tap water debate.  The site has drawn millions of visitors since its inception.  While delighted by the success of  Tappening’s  line of safe, reusable water bottles (priced at $18.95) that can be purchased from the site, co-founder Yaverbaum is insistent on emphasizing:  “What’s most important is not that you buy our bottle, or someone else’s bottle, but that you get educated on the facts.”

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About Tappening:  Tappening (www.tappening.com) -- founded by  Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum -- is an educational campaign designed to encourage the public to drink only tap water, and to send a message to the bottled water industry about its unnecessary and extreme waste of fossil fuels and resultant pollution of the Earth. 

About DiMassimo Goldstein:  More than an advertising agency, DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO) is a marketing strategy and communications partner focused on promoting “health, wealth and the pursuit of happiness.” Brand building at this thriving independent includes strategy, research, design, innovation, advertising, direct, digital, buzz, brand advocacy and social marketing. DIGO clients have included blue chip and entrepreneurial marketers such as Crunch, Citibank, Mastercard, Suntrust, Barclays Capital, Pfizer, Gateway, Vitamin Water, Joseph Abboud, Comcast, The Plaza Hotel, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, GoSmile, Juice Energy, ESPN and The American Red Cross, Dr. Mehmet Oz's HealthCorp and Rare Conservation, among others.  For more information, visit www.digobrands.com. 

About Ericho Communications:  Founded in 2007 by bestselling author, Eric Yaverbaum, Ericho Communications is a full-service public relations firm “where green meets the latest that technology has to offer.”   Ericho’s projects range from the  recent launch of the first-ever video text messaging company and a new peer-to-peer video-sharing website, to Tappening and work with Tibet. Yaverbaum is the former president of Jericho Communications, where he managed a ‘who’s who’ of brand names for 21 years, including IKEA Home Furnishings, Domino’s Pizza, Subway Sandwiches and Salads, Progressive Insurance, TCBY, Sony, H&M, Bell Atlantic, American Express, and many more. Yaverbaum is also the author of four books, including “PR for Dummies,” which is required reading in marketing classes at 57 U.S. universities.  His fourth book, “The Everything Leadership Book,” will be published in May.  Ericho Communications has offices in New York City, White Plains and will be opening an office in Tampa, FL this summer. For more information, visit www.erichopr.com

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Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo are available for interview.
JPEG image of bottle available upon request
www.tappening.com