The Strange Reason This Water Brand Is Going Viral

Ashton Hall may be the focus of the internet's latest viral moment, but it's his cobalt-blue bottle of Saratoga water that's stolen the show. On March 24, the fitness influencer and online coach posted an Instagram video of his morning routine for his 9 million followers, and the whole affair (which spans nearly six hours, according to the video's timestamps) is anything but casual. It involves everything from stretching, sprinting, and sitting in a sauna to reading the Bible, journaling, and listening to the news. He even has an assistant around to hand him his clothes when it's time to get dressed.

Yet somehow, amidst all of that activity, it was Hall's frequent use of Saratoga water that caught people's attention. That blue bottle went just about everywhere Hall did. He drank from it, used it to rinse out his mouth after brushing his teeth, and even used it to fill two (count 'em, two!) bowls of ice water into which he dunked his face. Though we can't say whether or not it's the best bottled water brand (after all, it wasn't part of our bottled water ranking, where Acqua Panna took the top spot), folks were so effectively influenced by Hall and his fancy water that the video has inadvertently given the brand a massive marketing boost.

Only 42% of people drink coffee in the morning, according to a Mashed poll, and it looks like Ashton Hall is not among them — he's more of a Saratoga kind of guy. As a matter of fact, with how hard he was seemingly pushing the bottled water in his viral video from March 24, it's hard to imagine that this was anything other than a case of product placement. Had that been the case, it would appear the marketing geniuses at Saratoga struck the right cord. In the time since Hall posted his morning routine, Google Trends data has reported that internet searches for the term "Saratoga water" have increased by over 1,000%. The company's stock even went up by a whopping 16% overnight (via MarketWatch). What's so interesting about Hall and his apparent product placement is that he doesn't actually have a working relationship with the company.

Primo Brands, Saratoga's parent company, told Business insider that though it hopes to pursue a partnership now, Hall is not currently affiliated with the water brand. Hall has been posting videos with the signature blue bottle since November 2024, and it's all seemingly out of love for the product. As of this writing, the fitness influencer hasn't publicly commented on why Saratoga is his water of choice, but since bottled water brands taste different from one another, it's possible that he simply enjoys the flavor.