South Florida Brothers Selling Oil Spill Souvenirs
"Oil Spill Water" raises money and awareness for the Gulf disaster
By ADAM KUPERSTEIN
Updated 9:57 AM EDT, Wed, Jun 30, 2010
Jeffrey and David Shiffman have turned their bathroom into a pseudo chemistry lab. The two brothers from Ft. Lauderdale are trying to support relief efforts in the Gulf, by bottling and selling "Oil Spill Water."
"Some people are like, 'who really wants that?'" said Jeffrey Shiffman. "Well, we don't really know who wants it."
But they're about to find out. A two ounce bottle goes for $9.99 on oilspillwater.com. It's real oil and real ocean water, just not from the Gulf. It's a "simulation" of the spill.
At first, they were using samples of crude oil from the Gulf, but shipping was expensive. And since all profits go to three organizations dedicated to cleaning up the gulf, they decided to switch to used motor oil.
"A lot of people are saying, 'cool, but I don't know if I'd buy it,'" said Jeffrey. "But we really want to strike home that this is a donation to help the environment."
So what exactly do you do with a bottle of "oil spill water"? The Shiffman brothers hope that it'll be a novelty item or a conversation piece.
"We want people to keep talking about it and to donate to these organizations," said David.
Five dollars from every bottle sold goes to covering costs, the other five gets split between Reef Relief, The International Fund for Animal Welfare, and The International Bird Research Center