I came across a rather interesting programme last night during my usual channel flicking. The marketers among us will find it particularly interesting as it focuses on how the large food companies have taken something very ordinary and turned it into a multimillion business and the various approaches they used.

The short series will cover three products; water, cereal and yoghurt. Last night’s programme focussed on water (someone should tell the producers that it is actually a drink) and talked us through how companies such as Perrier, Evian and Nestle convinced us to buy something that we could actually get for free… well until Margaret Thatcher decided to privatise the water companies.

The programme is more business orientated but it is worth a watch even just to see how much we all get sucked in by marketing.

You can catch up on the water episode on the BBC iPlayer

The Foods That Make Billions

BBC2, Tuesdays, 9pm