Liquid cocaine

How hype and urban legend made Red Bull into a commercial cocktail juggernaut.

By Jeff Edwards

Feb. 2, 2001 | Cigarette smoke hangs between the faint house lighting and the crowd that has packed C.T. Peppers in Indianapolis on a busy Saturday night. A brightly lit aquarium behind the bar draws the attention of patrons to a variety of tropical fish circling a 2-foot-tall silver can of Red Bull energy drink. Plastic table tents on the bar hawk Red Bull and Seagram's 7 for $4.95. Decals on the cash register and the front door alert clubgoers that Visa, MasterCard and Discover are accepted; another sticker announces that Red Bull is available. Bottles of domestic beer are still the most common order, but it's never very long before drinkers ask the bartender to open the logo-embossed display case on the bar and pull out a can of the energy drink to use as a mixer. As the night goes on, the distinctly syrupy scent of Red Bull begins to overwhelm the smell of stale beer.

In the annals of marketing, Red Bull holds the distinction of having created an unusual and highly effective sales strategy. Here is a product -- nonalcoholic, about as caffeinated as a cup of coffee -- that's managed to acquire a reputation as an over-the-counter amphetamine, a surefire wild-times elixir, all the while squirming its way into bars as if it were the latest offering from Anheuser-Busch. If Gatorade is sold to us as a "sports drink" with its promises of replenished electrolytes, Red Bull's marketers will have us believe that their product is a party drink, a stimulant, an aphrodisiac, a raver's "smart drink" gone mainstream.

The strategy is working: Red Bull had $1 billion in worldwide sales last year. According to Red Bull, sales in the U.S. have doubled every year since 1997, when the product was first brought over from Austria (where the drink originated). If Red Bull is increasingly popular here, it's a phenomenon in Europe, where the drink has been on store shelves and in pubs for nearly a decade longer than it has been available here. As has happened here, much of Red Bull's European success has to do with its association with alcohol and its use as a brand-name mixer.

The London Times recently reported on the Pitcher and Piano, a new bar in London's Bishopsgate financial district. The Pitcher and Piano serves Red Bull mixed drinks almost exclusively to a jet-setting class of Londoners the Times calls the "Red Bull and Champagne set." Stockbrokers who frequent the bar have nicknamed the Red Bull drinks "legal cocaine." Even the Times has bought into the hype: "The volatile combination of vodka and Red Bull tastes like alcoholic fruit juice but it gives drinkers such a euphoric high that many are losing control during the traditional Friday night drinking sessions around Bishopsgate." The Times story goes on to report that since the Pitcher and Piano opened a year ago, police have reported a sharp rise in violent incidents and have set up a special Bishopsgate patrol to deal with stockbrokers crazed by Red Bull and vodka.

The flip side of fame is notoriety, and in some cases, Red Bull's reputation has gotten it in trouble. The Irish prime minister recently called for an inquiry into Red Bull after a student who had been drinking the beverage at a sporting event suddenly died. Just this year, John Burroughs High School in Burbank, Calif., made news when the school banned energy drinks, including Red Bull, from its campus. Jay Gudzin, an assistant principal at the school, explained that two students became ill after ingesting an energy drink before football practice: "They became dizzy and disoriented. It was a very hot day, but these two weren't sweating at all. At first we were concerned that they may have been suffering from concussions, but practice hadn't started yet. When we took their pulse rates, one of the students had a pulse of 190."

The more rumors of Red Bull's potentially dangerous, overstimulating effects spread, the more the drink sells. Marketing geared toward nightclubs and adult drinkers and the extreme-sports events that Red Bull produces (including downhill mountain-bike racing in underground salt mines) work to cement the association between Red Bull, danger and drug highs.

The strategy is rumor by omission and, only when absolutely necessary, denial: Red Bull has carefully and intentionally cultivated the mystery surrounding its product; the public has filled in the blanks with speculation and innuendo. Meanwhile, Red Bull sells and sells.

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