High and dry?
I am of two minds in even mentioning this product on this blog, to inadvertently give it any added promotion, but it prompts an issue for marketers in general. Las Vegas-based Redux Beverages has launched a loaded energy drink called Cocaine, with the tagline of “The Legal Alternative.� The negative implications are obvious—the president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse already called on retailers to refuse to sell the “disgusting product� and says the company “should be ashamed of creating and marketing an insidious product.� The product contains a ridiculous amount of caffeine, something like three times that of Red Bull, as well as an ingredient that numbs the throat the way the real thing does, according to the creator. The drink’s website includes links for consumers to find not “retailers� but “dealers.� We can assume the PR boost the product will get because of the public outcry will help turn a quick buck.
So where is that invisible line between what is responsible marketing and promotion and marketing that does a disservice? Glamorizing a drug and a lifestyle will sell products but do marketers bear any responsibility for the messages they send? Is Cocaine’s branding and marketing (it has its own MySpace page and is being distributed at concert stops for Mary J. Blige and Fear Factory) edgy and clever? Or is it lowering the expectations of consumers for marketers in general?
