What drives this obsessive thirst -- this compulsion to pay for something we can essentially get for free? Royte characterizes the nationwide craving for bottled water, “in a country where more than 89 percent of tap water meets or exceeds federal health and safety regulations,” as both an outrageous marketing coup and an unparalleled social phenomenon. Beginning in the late 1970s with Orson Welles' high-toned television pitches for Perrier, bottled water has been promoted for its snob appeal as much as its health benefits. Jennifer Aniston’s recent spots for Smartwater strike Royte as typically absurd. “Some ads depict her naked and others place her, clad, in an elegant restaurant, where her plastic water bottle looks, to someone with my peculiar mindset, like litter amid the crystal stemware.”

‘Bottlemania’ by Elizabeth Royte, LATimes.com, June 1, 2008.

3. In the ‘80s, consumers hung around malls like ripe tomatoes waiting to be plucked off the vine.

To the delight of shopkeepers and advertisers, the snootier a product's image, the better. Consumers believed that the higher the price, the better the quality. Especially if they were laying out bucks for a prestigious name brand.

“It costs more, but I’m worth it,” actress Cybill Shepherd purred in commercials for L’Oreal hair color and cosmetics.

But in the 1990s, the consumer’s cry echoes the key line from “Network,” the 1976 movie: “I’m mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.”

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