Jeffrey and David Shiffman are consummate entrepreneurs, attempting to make money off of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They’ve turned their bathtub into a chemistry lab and are making and bottling “Oil Spill Water” to sell on their website oilspillwater.com. Originally, they were using the actual polluted water from the Gulf of Mexico, but shipping was too expensive, so they decided to manufacture their own; hence their need for the bathtub.
The only mention that the water isn’t really from the spill appears at the bottom of the website in a very light font and reads “Oil Spill Water is a novelty gift that is included with your donation.” Selling one thing and pretending it is another is just wrong. I emailed the site’s owners for clarification, but have yet to hear anything either way.
NBC Miami reports that the brothers are sending five dollars of every $9.99 order to Reef Relief, The International Fund for Animal Welfare, and The International Bird Research Center.