Monday, February 26, 2007

Caffeine: Why not make it Cocaine

The energy drink market has been booming in recent years. One of the juggernauts of the industry, Red Bull, has experienced incredible growth since it was first "invented" in 1984 and subsequently launched in Austria in 1987. Entrance in the US market as also proved incredibly profitable for the company which relies on a single product: the 8.3 ounce silver, blue and red can with a picture of a bull on it (in regular and sugar free of course). Since Red Bull, we have seen many copycat energy drinks including from the big names in soft drinks; Coke and Pepsi.



Coke's ridiculous "let your man out" slogan forms a central role in the marketing campaign of its Full Throttle energy drink, and helps to shed a not so subtle light on exactly who the company targets with its extreme beverage: teenage men. Visit their website http://www.fullthrottleenergy.com/ (I wouldn't) and you are confronted with hard rock music that doesn't stop. The sites theme could be described as aggressive, with links to "badass downloads" such as screen shots of street fighting video games, and desktop backgrounds of the Full Throttle cans, some engulfed in or shooting fire. The website also has information about the several variations of their product including sugar free and "fury" versions and links to contests and promotions. Interestingly no where on the site does Coke make any claims about how much caffeine is in the product.



That's part of the problem. The health concerns of high caffeine energy drinks have increased recently as the drinks get more extreme ie. more caffeinated, and more people start drinking them. France went so far as to ban Red Bull in 2004 after an 18 year old student died when he consumed four servings of the drink and started playing basketball. Through a secondary source, Medical News Today(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/), I was able to find the caffeine levels in Red Bull; 80 mg per can, which is about the same as in a cup of coffee. I also tracked down the caffeine content of Full Throttle which is 72mg per 8 ounce serving, or 144mg per 16 ounce can.



And then there is the heavy hitter of the energy drink world: Cocaine, no not the drug, well not the drug your thinking of any way. The Cocaine energy drink, launched by Redux Beverages in September of 2006, contains 280mg of caffeine per can, packing a punch 350% harder than that of a standard Red Bull. The company states that "we knew kids would find it cool, but we also wanted to stress the idea that it's an energy drink, you don't need drugs." That's sweet, but since when is caffeine not a drug? Their website (http://www.drinkcocaine.com/) claims that the only side effect is "extreme amounts of energy" and that the drink should only be consumed by "responsible adults", however advises people "failure to adhere to this warning may result in excess excitement, stamina, fun and possible feeling of euphoria." Wait, so your legal team is saying that if people other than "responsible adults" consume this drink they will have fun and feel euphoric? So kids should drink it, because it would be fun? I would love to sit in on a lawsuit where a family sues Redux Beverages because their child died from heart failure due to an extreme dose of caffeine, and their lawyer explains how the company marketed and advocated the consumption of a drink with 280mg, to KIDS! Maybe the Redux lawyer will say "Objection, this wasn't tragic, their son died feeling Euphoric!"





This past weekend, USF promoted Full Throttle energy drink at the Men's Basketball game against Gonzaga, when it allowed a USF student from the crowd to shoot baskets to win cases of the drink. I have no problem with this promotion. I personally rarely drink energy drinks and think the Full Throttle marketing campaign is really lame. I do not want to ban energy drinks or limit their use among consumers. But I would also like to ask the questions, when is enough, enough? And should these drinks be marketed to children? As a regular coffee drinker, I think we should find ways to make caffeine consumption responsible, and distance its relationship to hard drugs like cocaine which is the opposite of what Redux Beverages is doing with its product.

I worked at a summer camp two summers ago and many of the kids were hyperactive, and many took daily mood altering medications, some were even treated for depression, and they were 13 years old (this was a regular swim in the lake, play in the woods summer camp). I think we should look to decreasing the about of unnatural substance that these kids consume. What is the benefit if a child takes medication to treat ADD or ADHD (two very common "disorders" among children at this camp) and then goes out and chugs a Cocaine drink with their friends?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...


Caffeine  addiction

In this  article, we are going to discuss the importance of caffeine addiction and the  most important facts ictions in the world, just like  cocaine and marihuana. Caffeine addiction sometimabout it, as caffeine addiction is something we all must  prevent in order for us to be healthy and stay that way for years. We are also  going to mention some significant facts about caffeine effects and how caffeine  effects may affect our body performance considerably.

Caffeine  addiction is one of the most famous types of addes has been considered a lie,  but it is a really, because caffeine is a stimulant that becomes addictive  within a certain period of time. Interestingly, caffeine addiction shows up  when you are not expecting it, and it does not necessarily show up because we  want to. You can  more information for the Caffeine addiction in: http://yourcaffeineaddiction.com/


Pure caffeine is, chemically speaking, a plant-based alkaloid that stimulates the central nervous system in any living creature that intakes it. Biologically, caffeine serves as a form of pest control for certain plants like cacao trees, coffee shrubs, yuba mate and tea trees; it causes insects and other pests to fall down from the effects of over-stimulation. So, just like those pests and insects that I mentioned, caffeine also produces stimulation in our central nervous system, which usually makes us feel more energized, invigorating and active.


There is something called caffeine withdrawal, which refers to the sudden denial of us to consume caffeine, and it happens when regular consumers of caffeinated products may experience painful headaches if the body is denied caffeine. These headaches are caused by excess blood gathering in the area around the brain and sinus cavities, so without the stimulation provided by caffeine, the blood vessels shrink, restricting the blood flow. The traditional cure for caffeine withdrawal is to ingest more caffeine, which is not a healthy solution and this is also why many headache medications contain small amounts of caffeine.You can  more information for the Caffeine addiction in: http://yourcaffeineaddiction.com/

Ann said...

I found a related article. you might want to read about caffeine.
10 important caffeine side effect that people do not think about