Uncomfortably energetic
Working in this field, I sometimes can’t help but look at my daily situations with a public relations eye. Take for example a recent afternoon in the park.
As an active, social adult, I like playing silly sports. It’s a chance to get out, enjoy the weather, hang with my friends and enjoy a cold beverage. Last week, when I was hanging out in park waiting for my teammates to show up, I noticed three pre-teens enjoying some beverages of their own.
Before you jump to conclusions, I can assure you they were non-alcoholic drinks. However, they weren’t your normal soft drinks, either. These drinks have exotic ingredients such as guarana, acai, taurine, ginseng, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine, creatine, glucuronolactone and ginkgo biloba, not to mention lots and lots of sugar and caffeine. With tag lines like “It gives you wings” and “Unleash the beast,” these drinks are meant to energize and stimulate.
Anyone who has had a long day will attest that these energy drinks can be a life-saver, helping you stay awake in that boring meeting, aiding you in getting though your all-nighter, or even just giving you a boost before your sporting event. But they can be dangerous.
Red Bull alone has been accused of several deaths, criticized for its high levels of caffeine and other stimulants, and was even banned in Denmark until recently. Too much caffeine can also cause a whole bunch of smaller problems that are amplified in small children. These include: headaches, difficulty concentrating, nervousness, difficulty sleeping, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and increased risk of heart problems.
So back to the kids in the park. Each one of them – maybe four feet tall and under 100 pounds each – had a 16-ounce can of Monster Energy Drink that they had obviously just purchased at the convenience store around the corner.
Aside from the fact that each can of Monster contains almost 300 calories from sugar (that’s a whole other ball of wax), each of the kids – less then half my size – were downing drinks that give me the shakes. At 160 milligrams of caffeine, each is more than double the Canadian government’s suggested maximum for a kid that age. I even overheard one of them talking about his buddy who once drank three of the drinks in an hour. I can’t imagine his parents would be ok with that.
Currently, the US is not treating these drinks any different then soda pop, but clearly they are. In the U.S., caffeine is Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS, according to an FDA acronym) and is, therefore, essentially unregulated. It seems only a matter of time before regulation catches up with this industry. Several states have already started entertaining bills for regulation.
So, from a public relations point of view, my question to you is, what should the companies who create these super-charged drinks do to prepare for increasing scrutiny and possible regulation.
Some possible suggestions could be:
1. Don’t follow, set the pace.
2. Be cautious with marketing messages.
3. Start working with the activists asking for regulation to come to the right compromise
4. Become the role model for the industry.
With an active approach companies can ward off potentially damage to reputation.
What do you think?
More reading:
FDA Urged to Stop Claims for “Energy” Drinks
NPR: The Buzz over Energy Drinks
For your viewing pleasure:
(caution adult language)
