Jan. 10, 2008 - Come July, Coke's mailroom will be stuffed with 1 million used plastic bottles carrying anti-bottled water messages for incoming CEO Muhtar Kent. The bottles are part of an awareness campaign aimed at encouraging consumers to drink tap water, Advertising Age reports.

The "Tappening" campaign, created by Mark DiMassimo of marketing firm DiMassimo Goldstein and Eric Yaverbaum of public relations agency Ericho Communications, is pushing reusable bottles emblazoned with messages like "Think Global. Drink Local."

"This is a public-education initiative dressed up as a brand to change the context in which Coke does business in," says DiMassimo.

Global companies including Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle have come under fire from consumer and environmental groups concerned that plastic water bottles, which are made from petroleum products, are building up in landfills.

"They're all worthy targets but Coke is the biggest, and one thing you learn is you start big," Kent says. "They've responded right away and said they will happily recycle the bottles. But recycling also uses fossil fuels and burns energy and is wasteful, when you don't need to recycle."

About 10,000 bottles have been collected since the campaign launched in November.