Given its fame as a calorie-burning soda, the makers of Celsius have probably already considered the marketing tag “Drink of Losers” but they went even farther during last night’s Oscars, somehow getting their product included in a gift bag for nominees.

It’s part of the “Everybody Wins at the Oscars,” Gift Bag given to non-winning nominees in the major Academy Awards categories including Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, and Best Director.

How nice. You don’t win an Oscar, and you get a bag of stuff that includes something that will supposedly help you drop a few pounds. Hey, welcome to the real world, kiddo. Meanwhile, who won best actor? Forest Whitaker? Maybe the big guy could trade bags with, say, Jackie Earl Haley…

Apparently, the fact that Spike Shooter Energy Drink made a few kids sick in Colorado is now echoing into the Web’s creepy ideological zones: it’s been picked up by a conservative media institute as part of a “news watch” that flags news organizations like CNN as supporting some kind of bizarre cabal promoting excessive government control of business interests.

Good grief.

The last thing this industry needs to get wrapped up in is part of the ongoing liberal-conservative tug-of-war over the bent of the mainstream media.

Regardless of how you feel about regulation, warning labels, voluntary or involuntary caffeine restrictions, there is absolutely no way that this issue should rise (read:sink) into the muck and mire of whether or not the Business & Media Institute believes CNN has some burning desire for government regulation.

Whether or not the industry likes it, there is an emerging debate about caffeine, just as there is a lot of discussion about other kinds of food labeling. And whether or not ITALIC/any/ITALIC industry likes them, stories of this kind – kids doing dumb things with products that fairly dare them to* – are both valid stories in and of themselves (just like stories on book banning, cooties, and oral sex) are often used as ways to either introduce the issue itself or get at the reason the debate is taking place.

They’re not covering the story as part of some master plan. The takeaway warning here is that there are enough forces in play on this issue without the industry getting co-opted by a bunch of wingnuts from either side.

Happy Friday.

*Yes, we’re aware that Spike Shooter is labeled with warnings on the front. But come on. They’re pretty smarmy: one says “WARNING: EXTEMELY POTENT,” (as much of an attraction as a cautionary note, given the fact that it’s an energy drink) and while there is a more helpful, perfectly visible – albeit smaller – one that says “READ LABEL BEFORE DRINKING,” both are sandwiched around a much more encouraging, larger, brighter, yellower “GET SPIKED” line. And yes, we know there’s a “recommended use” on the back suggesting that drinkers begin with half a can the first time around, but any can that instructs people to only drink half at first is going to have to expect that some people will chug the whole thing, barf, and complain.

With the announcement of Diet Pepsi Max and Coke’s upcoming launch of Diet Coke Plus, it seems evident that the 2007 edition of the Cola Wars has finally “innovated” beyond flavor extension and is now moving into functionality.

Maybe these products will prove to be worthy additions – or even game changers – but to me, unless the goal is simply to stop share loss to competing categories, rather than attract new drinkers, these products represent nothing more than hard evidence of all that ail Coke & Pepsi.

First of all, these products are still CSDs. So are most energy drinks, but Red Bull and its competitors have managed to create a disguise for their products via attitude and positioning. CSDs are on the decline and, at best, this is a temporary bandage that will likely soften – not eliminate – further decline in ’07.

Second, you have to drink diet cola to want to drink these products. I can’t fathom anyone starting to drink diet cola (or going back to it) because it now has vitamins or extra caffeine and ginseng. Of all CSDs, Cola seems the least health oriented – and why would consumers drinking it care? There is an argument to be made that the CSD backlash hasn’t reached a large portion of the big companies’ core consumers, and that products like these will provide a hedge for when they do, but again, it seems like a small step when a bigger one would be to develop something really interesting.

For most of the country, though, these products are too little, too late. The industry has already been there (hello 7-Up Plus) and done that (Jolt Cola). Diet Pepsi Max (which Pepsi claims received “high scores in consumer testing”) is based on research that will make anyone in the industry say “duh”: “Nearly 80% of adult consumers say that maintaining energy is a top priority and nearly 60% find that there’s not enough time in the day to do the things they need to do.”

The moral of this diatribe is that Coke & Pepsi appear to be repeating their same old tricks (cannibalize CSDs), but in a different medium (functionals)…. As always, they appear to be spending too much time a) focusing on each other and b) analyzing, planning, etc. for a market that is fickle and moves quickly. Much more quickly than either of these companies are capable of responding. And regardless of what they say about innovation, there’s way too much emphasis on protecting their cola turf.

Energy Drink/Workout product Redline is causing a bit of a stir out in Sacramento, as there were 10 cases of “Redline intoxication calls” to the poison control center over a two-year period.

Yesterday, a construction worker told the Sacramento Bee he’d thought he was about to die after drinking two super strong — 250 mg of caffeine in an 8 oz. bottle — Redlines and eating a burrito.

According to the story, the bottles come with a warning label that is “unreadable” even with a magnifying glass. We just looked at the label, and, while we could read it without any kind of magnification, we couldn’t find anything about burritos.

Nevertheless, we are a bit concerned about this development. That’s a lot of caffeine to pack into a product, and Redline adds some other stuff to make workouts more efficient. We wonder if a voluntary cap limit on caffeine for energy drinks — say, 200 mg for an 8-oz can, or two cups of strong coffee — might make sense and take some of the heat off the stove.

What do you think? Should there be a caffeine ceiling? And has anyone else ever thought “I can’t wait to have my redline with this burrito?”

Now, we love watching the drivers tradin’ paint at the track as much as the next blog, but this release was about a recycling initiative at a sporting event whose main byproduct is global warming:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ — NASCAR fans will have an opportunity to support the environment, as well as their favorite drivers, during the upcoming Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500 at historic Daytona International Speedway (DIS).

Each year during the Budweiser Shootout (Feb. 10) and the Daytona 500 (Feb. 18), the “World Center of Racing” hosts thousands of fans, offering a tremendous potential for recycling the large number of beverage containers generated.

To help collect aluminum cans and plastic bottles, The Budweiser Green Team and DIS employees will provide recycling bags to campers as they enter the Speedway infield and the West lot camping grounds. The program is simple — campers put aluminum and plastic beverage containers in recycling bags and when full, leave them in front of their campsite for pickup. To encourage guests to recycle, the Budweiser Green Team will reward campers that are “caught” recycling with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. recycling posters and other race merchandise.

come on…. if you help recycle empty bottles and cans, they’ll give you a poster? Made of paper? Call Greenpeace. These guys deserve a medal for sure….

Yes, it’s big news that Jones Soda is going with an all-cane sugar lineup. Yes, we applaud the decision and believe it should be good for business.

No, we don’t think that company CEO Peter van Stolk should have explained the decision as one inspired by an email from receptionist Jason Kim as “Dude, do it.”

Today, a federal jury convicted Joya Williams, a former Coca-Cola secretary, of conspiring to steal trade secrets from world’s largest beverage maker in an effort to sell them to rival Pepsi.

Now, as someone who has sampled all of Cokes products that have come out of Coke over the past couple of years, I’m really curious to know what the secrets were. The secret formula to Gold Peak? The latest flavor to be mixed with Coca-Cola? Or perhaps she was simply trying to sell Pepsi data that would stop them from making similar mistakes?? Seriously, it’s mind boggling…

Read more
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/02/coca.cola.trade.ap/index.html

In a move that will appeal to two-year-olds everywhere but leave English teachers aghast, the new slogan for Pepsi Cola has been revealed: More Happy.

This is a radical departure… from proper grammar. There’s more in this Businessweek article, which, in the last few paragraphs, outlines the slow decline of PepsiCo’s sentence structure.