Dead keen to get ahead in the water business

By SIMON HENDERY

Competition in the bottled water market is stiff, so it makes an offbeat sort of sense that one new entrant has an advertising campaign starring a corpse.

The television commercials for Waiwera Infinity water, which start screening this weekend, are reminiscent of the cult movie Weekend at Bernie's, in which two young men do all they can to make dead Uncle Bernie seem alive and animated.

In one of the Infinity ads, the departed hero slips quietly out of the saddle while horse riding with a friend.

In another, he is propped in front of an automatic baseball pitching Machine but is unable to hit a home run despite being cheered on enthusiastically by a female friend.

The catchline of the ads, produced by Auckland's Fuse Collective, is "Live long enough to do it all".

Infinity water is distributed by Siesta Holdings, of Waiwera Thermal Resort and Spa, north of Auckland.

Siesta chairman John Brown says the ads are "trying to get people to sit up and take notice because we have a water that is different".

"We now have the job of trying to educate the consumer of the benefits associated with drinking a water that has been modified."

A third ad in which Mr Corpse is enjoying a night out on the town with friends but ends up on the road after falling out of the sun roof of a limousine - will not be screened.

Brown said the agency was keen to run the ad but he wasn't.

"I don't like the association with drink-driving or the connotation of people lying dead on the road," he said.

Infinity comes from the Waiwera Valley, and is "rich in minerals and has an increased pH level making it more compatible with the body's cells and blood".

"I drink four bottles a day every day and it's made a huge difference to the way I feel, the way I work and the way my body works," says Brown.

"It really does make a difference."

Siesta has been exporting Infinity to the United States since June and has also been marketing water under the Waiwera Mineral Water brand since the middle of last year.

Waiwera Infinity water