text: In celebration of Equality Day (Aug. 26) and women’s right to vote, Johnnie Walker’s Jane Walker brand partnered with activist celebrities to host inspiring TV conversations and released custom T-shirts to encourage women to vote.
  For the second consecutive year, The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Alexandria, Va., and New York-based Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) announced that bottled water is the No. 1 beverage in the United States, by volume.
  Youthful consumers, emerging categories, the proliferation of new products, an altered retail landscape, increasing importance on social media and shifting demographics were among the key topics highlighted at this year’s The Beverage Forum.
  Capping a decades-long streak of vigorous growth, bottled water achieved a major milestone in 2016, when it surpassed carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) to become the largest beverage category by volume in the United States, according to New York-based Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC). Total bottled water volume grew from 11.8 billion gallons in 2015 to 12.8 billion gallons in 2016, an increase of nearly 9 percent, which marked the third year of accelerated growth, the market research firm says.