Water is Not Cool at Fast Food Restaurants

I've always enjoyed hashbrowns at McDonald's. I know it's the last place in Boulder I should be eating, but once in a while, I'll walk over on a Sunday morning and grab a hashbrown because I think they're tasty.

I did that this weekend, and I noticed something fascinating at the drink station.

The nozzle that dispenses water is the least attractive thing I have ever seen. It's a white square with blunt black lettering that says WATER. No art, no color, nothing appealing. Compare it to the other drink offerings - it's surrounded by the colorful promise of thirst-quenching majesty!

Is this done deliberately to discourage people from drinking water? By associating it with staid, boring typefaces and design choices? Are we so easily repelled?

A guerrilla dietician should wage a campaign whereby flashy, attactive WATER stickers are placed over the boring ones in an effort to get peeps to drink more water. That would be refreshing. Ha?

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? I'd love to see pics.