The eyes of the world turn to Iowa today, and if any of those eyes belong to Red Bull distributors, chances are they won’t be contributing to the presidential campaign of one candidate, former Senator John Edwards.

Edwards, a former 12-pack-a-campaign trail-day Diet Coke drinker, gave up caffeine after the 2004 election. Perhaps that’s not the best idea if you’re planning on pushing through an uninterrupted 36-hour “marathon for the middle class” at the close of the Iowa Caucus campaign, as Edwards did, but maybe it makes it all the more admirable.

Or, if you’re in the energy drink camp, it might make it all the more foolish. Watch this video from an Edwards press bus visit and you’ll see that the sleep-deprived-but-chipper candidate pulls no punches when it comes to his favorite — and least favorite — beverages.

“Red Bull? That stuff’s nasty,” he told the reporters, who had attempted to offer him some.

Word from British tech bloggers is that Coke is developing a bottling and vending machine technology for Sprite bottles — and eventually Coke, Diet Coke, etc. — that will freeze some of the liquid into cubes inside the bottle when the cap opens.

Initial attention is focused on the fact that the drinks won’t be diluted by water. Forget that! Attention should be focused on the fact that doing that would be really, really, really neat. Why give it to the Brits first, though? Isn’t the right to be really neat what we fought the American Revolution for?

• “Plus” is an awful name choice. It’s bland and boring. What does it really mean anyway? “Plus” extra caffeine or energy might have been a more interesting entry
• It has 10-15% RDA of several vitamins. Hardly meaningful.
• Furthermore, consumers aren’t reducing their CSD consumption due to lack of vitamin content…and vitamin content in a cola doesn’t all of a sudden make it feel healthy.
• It’s bad looking…like a C2 style logo with a rainbow color scheme on top of what appears to be a normal Diet Coke label. Not attractive.
• It’s confusing. This doesn’t taste like Diet Coke and it uses a sweetener blend that’s different than Diet Coke. So it’s not really Diet Coke Plus Vitamins & Minerals. It’s really Diet Coke Reformulated. Confusion might just make consumers go somewhere else…like to a non CSD.

Overall, I think this one will definitely go the way of C2. A quick hit for the early part of the summer and then out to pasture by the end of the year.

So, what do you think?