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DowntonWaterAid.jpg

'Downton Abbey' Water Bottle Gaffe to Water Charity Fundraiser

By Genevieve Burgess | Celebrity | August 17, 2014 |

By Genevieve Burgess | Celebrity | August 17, 2014 |


A few days ago, the internet was all aflutter over a publicity still for the upcoming season of Downton Abbey in which a water bottle was visible on the mantel behind Lady Edith and the Earl of Grantham. Here’s the photo, in case you missed it:
downton-abbey-water-bottle.jpg

While the internet furiously congratulated itself on being able to recognize a water bottle AND know that water bottles were not standard in 1924, the cast decided to make the best of the situation and created the promotional photo above in order to help benefit the charity WaterAid. WaterAid works to bring clean water to areas with little or no access to it.

I like this response a lot. There’s no hope of stopping the internet of grabbing mistakes like this and shaking them until they’re dead, so to use it to draw attention to a worthy cause is an excellent use of notoriety. Good work to whichever member of the Downton PR team came up with this one.