![]() ![]() Sacks pointed out that the amount of caffeine in a Monster, about 160 milligrams, is about half what is present in a similar-sized Starbucks coffee. Put another way, more than five million cans of Monster Energy drinks are sold and safely consumed around the world every day.” In 2012, we sold some two billion cans of Monster Energy drinks in approximately 90 countries. “We estimate that about 50 billion cans of energy drinks have been sold and safely consumed worldwide over the past 25 years, including more than nine billion Monster Energy drinks over the past 11 years. Rodney Sacks, Monster’s chairman and CEO, responded to the furor during the company’s annual shareholders meeting on June 3, pointing out that the number of complaints about the beverage pales in comparison to Monster’s enormous sales volumes. Monster was a focus of articles in the New York Times because of the 14-year-old’s death – and saw its stock prices plunge to as low as $41 a share in October, when the newspaper initially linked it to consumer deaths. Contacted about the report, Living Essentials, the company that makes 5-hour Energy, issued a statement defining its product as “an energy shot intended for busy adults it is not an energy drink, nor marketed as a beverage.” The statement went on to say it has “about as much caffeine as a cup of the leading premium coffee” and is not to be used with alcohol. ![]() ![]() (No deaths were reported in connection with Red Bull or Rockstar.)īut the media attention and ongoing FDA probe have shaken up a sector that had been a juggernaut. The FDA says it has received incident reports linking 11 additional deaths over a three-year period to the consumption of 5-hour Energy. The federal Food and Drug Administration is investigating the energy-drink industry and has already made public reports linking the use of Monster products to a total of five deaths between April of 2009 and April of 2012. The girl’s mother filed a lawsuit, which is in mediation, and it made headlines in the New York Times. The issue flared to national attention because of a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died of a heart arrhythmia, purportedly after drinking large amounts of Monster. Now Monster and its ilk are under fire from critics who say young people are being harmed – and in some cases are dying – because of the excessive caffeine they are being encouraged to guzzle. Monster and rival Red Bull account for about two-thirds of the domestic energy-drink market, ranking far ahead of 5-hour Energy and Rockstar Energy, industry analysts say. But the Monster energy-drink line almost single-handedly boosted net sales to $2.06 billion last year, an all-time high. The company, based in Brea and later Anaheim before moving to Corona in 1998, still makes natural sodas and juices. Monster drinks have even usurped the company name – now Monster Beverage Corp. Stock prices languished under a buck before Monster debuted last June they spiked to nearly $80 a share. Hyde, the once-mild-mannered Hansen’s has been transformed by the success of its edgy signature product. Grab a Monster, the beverage brand says, on a website featuring bikini-clad “Monster Girls,” and savor a “lifestyle in a can.” Monster drinks offer “the big bad buzz you know and love” and promote a culture devoted to “action sports, punk rock music, partying, hangin’ with the girls, and living life on the edge.” Today Monster Energy is a goliath of the multi-billion-dollar energy-drink market, battling Red Bull for supremacy in the United States, due in part to a marketing thrust aimed at walking the wild side. The logo looked like claw marks, rendered in a ghoulish green hue straight out of Dr. Monster energy drink came in an oversized, 16-ounce can, packing a jolt of caffeine four times that of most carbonated soft drinks. Mixed by man.”), the beverage it spawned in 2002 was an entirely different animal. For the company that produced Hansen’s Natural colas and juices (company slogan: “Made by Nature. ![]()
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