Chapo Trap House - 725 Teaser - Soda Court

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

We talk to beverage journalist Dave Infante about Bang! Energy’s wacky CEO Jack Owoc, and the rise of sodas intended to purify your mind on the market. Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

I mean, and, you know, it used to be the urban legend about Pepsi is that there were aborted fetuses in every can of Pepsi, but, you know, I mean, Jacks would just be like, no, they stole my idea. I'm putting aborted fetuses in every bang energy drink. Yeah, to bring it, that's full circle. That's perfect because, like, he was at, you know, six months ago putting, like, poorly drawn cartoons of Pepsi's executives on, like, fake, wanted posters and saying that he was like filing like grand, like grand jury indictments against them as like a private citizen.

That's not obviously how the legal system works. Like he can't, he can't bring like a fucking criminal case. He cannot indict the Pepsi co-corporation. It's like, sir, that's, you know, please stop calling our offices. That's not how this works. I'm a citizen DA in Soda Court. Well, David, I want to talk to you like I just like a sort of like a more bird's-eye view of the changing beverage industry and I want to talk about like, you know, we often like

to talk about the things that have been taken from us in our culture and what they are doing to us. And I'm just thinking about like over the last 10 or 15 years, the market share of in the beverage industry taken up by energy drinks, which are bad and satanic and poison, taking away from good old fashioned, wholesome, nutritious and restorative caffeinated soda drinks. And like, I mean, like just, just your perspective on like the, the massive proliferation of energy drinks.

And I think what that says about our culture is that like, people are in need of more and more and more like uppers to get them through the day because like a coffee and soda aren't cutting it anymore. They need 300 milligrams of caffeine and a super creatine in a super unicorn energy candy apple crisp beverage. Yeah. I think like we talk a lot like in the, I don't want to, this is not a business podcast. I forbid and I don't want to like get too much into like the jargon, but what you'll

hear people in the total beverage space, which includes both alcoholic and non-alcoholic products. That's how they refer to it. Like they'll talk about like functional beverage, right? Like so this is, this is this idea that like there's sort of non-functional beverage like soda where you drink it ostensibly for pleasure or beer you drink to get drunk. And then this like functional category, which has emerged in the last really come on strong in the last like five years or so, it's been emerging for longer than that.

And that's the shit that sort of you'll see, you know, sort of seltzers that are marketed with CBD or adaptogens or new tropics, like things that people can pick up to like not only get a boost in energy, but to get a boost in clarity, right? Like you're going to be able to think sharper if you drink this type, you know, this seltzer or you're going to be able to sort of like have, you know, all the benefits of caffeine with no crash if you drink this sort of like mushroom coffee drink or whatever. So like the idea of like functional beverage is huge in the business. And part of the reason for that is because you can't sell people the same shit again

and again, if like there's a mounting public health consensus that it's going to fucking kill them, right? Like you, people are like very willing to be, you know, the line is like volunteer to be taken advantage of, I think that was like an old Willie Stolley line. People are very willing to volunteer to be taken advantage of, but like they need like at least like a fucking veneer of like, you know, sort of superficial marketing on top of it, if they've been convinced that, you know, this thing that you had been selling them is so poison.

And so, you know, the idea that like soda is bad has finally penetrated the mainstream consciousness enough that all the soda companies are like, what are our better for you? That's another big industry buzzwords. What are our better for you alternatives that we can offer people? And that's why you see that coming on so strong, you know, it'd be a functional beverage product that people wouldn't get tired of and would drink over and over and over again. The Coca-Cola original formula, if you know what I'm talking about, bring it back. Bring it back.

Talk about medicinal. It gives you that energy. I'll just say with some crash, some crash when you stop drinking it, but then you just have some more. It's easy. That's fine. It's easy. There's no crash if you just keep having coax.

Plus like, yeah, you feel bad, but you've come up with a lot of really good business ideas. How about we put ultra creatine in the energy drinks?