I am on a training course, learning about the most exciting development in IT since the last one. Struggling to stay awake, I stand up, cross the room and start to pour myself some bottled water. The label on the bottle, being somewhat more interesting than the course material, engages my attention. It is a piece of copywriting gold.
The cool, clear, natural mineral water sourced from the Caledonian spring on the Eastern edge of the Campsie Fells is one of Scotland's purest mineral waters. For centuries the Campsie fault has guided and filtered the Scottish rains through layers of volcanic rock to create an underground source of purified natural mineral water. Caledonian mineral water is exclusively bottled on a protected estate owned by one family since 1508.
Let's just check that...
Natural - check
Filtered - check
Pure - check
Sounds perfect. All I have to do is raise it to my lips and - wait, what's this?
Best before June 2009.
Um. Excuse me? Could you just run that by me again?
The cool, clear, natural mineral water -
No, the bit at the end.
Best before June 2009.
Oh, right. Because after centuries of filtering through volcanic rock, and then being stored in a hermetically sealed bottle, it might go off within the the next two years?
No, after the next two years. Well, one year and ten months now. Come on, drink up.
Ah, that's all right then. Mmmm, tastes really, er, tasteless. What did you say was in it again?
Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Sodium, Bicarbonate, Sulphate, Nitrate, Fluoride, Chloride, Silicate.
Can't get much purer than that.