Netflix guru who launched the hit show Stranger Things is making millions selling water in a can called ‘Liquid Death’ – after a viral ad for the £1.99 product shows a man being waterboarded with it, on Facebook is prohibited
- Liquid Death cans are accompanied by a tagline urging us to ‘kill’ our thirst
- Makers claim it to be the fastest growing non-alcoholic beverage brand of all time
- Liquid Death’s natural minerals and electrolytes are said to be good for you
The text, written on the cans in a sinister gothic font, is meant to shock: ‘Liquid Death.’ An accompanying slogan urges us to ‘kill’ our thirst.
You might think this is an edgy new craft beer or energy drink to rival the Monster range. In fact, Liquid Death is just water. And while a five-litre bottle of Ashbeck mineral water costs £1.40, a half-litre can of Liquid Death costs £1.99.
Still, the price doesn’t seem to put people off. Although the product is new to the UK, the US makers already have annual sales of nearly £100 million and claim it to be the fastest growing non-alcoholic drink brand of all time.
The company also sells sparkling water and iced teas like “The Grim Leafer” and “Rest in Peach,” and now has 2.2 million followers on Instagram — more than Pepsi’s 1.8 million.
According to the makers, Liquid Death’s “natural minerals and electrolytes” are “good for your body.” But what really seems to be driving its success is founder Mike Cessario’s controversial marketing campaign.
Liquid Death cans are accompanied by a tagline urging us to ‘kill’ our thirst
Having worked on viral promotions for Netflix shows including Stranger Things, Mr. Cessario knew the power of social media and launched the company with an ad on Facebook even before it had a product to sell.
The ad, which features a man being waterboarded with a can of Liquid Death, was quickly banned by Facebook, but not before reaching three million views.
Another disturbing video was a later cartoon that began with a walker being decapitated by an axe-wielding figure with a Liquid Death look for a head.
Blood then spurted everywhere as the same figure sliced an office worker in half, chopped off a skateboarder’s legs and shoved a chef’s head into a blender. “We don’t want to make marketing, we want to make people laugh,” Cessario told Forbes.
Whether such scenes qualify as humor is debatable. But what environmentalists certainly don’t find funny are claims that canned water helps the planet because aluminum packaging is easy to recycle.
One of Liquid Death’s slogans is “Death to Plastic,” and the company makes great use of the fact that its cans are made from over 70 percent recycled material.
However, environmental group Green Alliance points out that the remaining 30 percent has yet to be mined, creating a toxic by-product called red mud that is stored in huge reservoirs. In 2010, seven people died and 120 suffered burns after a leak from a red mud reservoir in Hungary.
Green Alliance advises anyone who cares about the environment to choose tap water. But that obviously doesn’t help Liquid Death’s sales.
What really seems to drive its success is founder Mike Cessario’s controversial marketing campaign (pictured)
Makers claim it to be the fastest growing non-alcoholic beverage brand of all time
“Don’t worry, it’s just water,” reads their slogan on a huge screen in the window of the Whole Foods store in Kensington, west London, one of the few UK stores where Liquid Death is currently available – and also on Amazon and at festivals such as Latitude, Leeds and Reading.
Green Alliance says if half of the UK’s plastic water bottles were replaced by cans, mining the aluminum could generate 162,000 tonnes of toxic waste: enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall six times over.
Now that’s really scary.