Post: Cocaine in a Can
Cocaine in a Can
While runway models are keeping the press humming about the slim scene, I’m tracking what’s going on behind those curtains with celeb and ad types abuzz (literally) about a new "energy drink" that crashed the runway parties.
Just when you thought marketing to kids couldn’t get much more toxic, “Drink Cocaine” is the message, with 280 milligrams of caffeine in an 8.4 oz can, coming soon to a homework tribe near you…
Targeting teens as the bad boy drink for the Red Bull set, this concoction is being hyped as “350% stronger than the Bull.” It’s also being promoted as “the legal alternative,” referred to in street slang drug terms, such as "doing cocaine," and asking kids, "can you handle the rush?"
“It’s an energy drink, and it’s a fun name,” says Jamey Kirby, founder of this lame Las Vegas libation, “As soon as people look at the can, they smile.”
Not smilin,’ Jim… Glamorizing drug culture and gleefully marketing a "high" to high schoolers “Instant Rush! No crash!” doesn’t strike me as “tee-hee” material.
It’s got a “high that hits you within five minutes, followed by a caffeine boost 15 minutes later. But hold on -- the ride lasts five hours…” and an inventor that boasts to the New York Post, “I can think of no other product except real cocaine that could have that effect on the public.”
Read the rest of this entry at Shaping Youth.