Darren Rovell's Gatorade blog

Gatorade Goes On The Offensive

Very rarely does Gatorade comment on its competition, but a whole series of stories about a study that reportedly showed that chocolate milk was better for muscle recovery than Gatorade woke up the sleeping giants.

Here is the official company response, hot off the press: "This was not the finding of the study. To clarify, the study found that Gatorade...which has less than one-third the calories of chocolate milk performed equally as well as chocolate milk and that both chocolate milk and Gatorade performed significantly better than a carbohydrate replacement drink."

Did you ever think that the innocent chocolate milk could cause such a fuss? If you drink chocolate milk instead of Gatorade, please weigh in.

Gatorade Wins Product Placement Award

One of my favorite Web sites, BrandChannel.com, has given their 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement to Gatorade. Here's what the BrandChannel's Abram Sauer had to say: "Gatorade owes a great thank you (if not back royalties) to former New York Giants football player Harry Carson. During Super Bowl XXI, the former athlete dumped a cooler over the head of his victorious coach, and the brand catapulted into the spotlight. Gatorade's real-life sideline omnipresence has made it a sports film necessity in order to achieve a realistic scene -- an enviable position for products attempting to get into films and fight the 'it's just not natural label.' As Darren Rovell, author of First In Thirst: How Gatorade Turned The Science of Sweat Into A Cultural Phenomenon, puts it: 'If you can't use the pro uniforms, if you can't use the real players or real coaches, having Gatorade on the sidelines immediately conveys to the movie viewer, 'This is authentic.' If you are making a sports movie that has any action, Gatorade is one of the most natural fits.' Gatorade's increased presence in real-life sports through the 1990s and the new millenium has translated to an increased presence in screen time. With appearances in far such as Juwanna Mann, The Sixth Man, Like Mike, Friday Night Lights, Jerry Maguire and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, as well as 2005's Coach Carter, Rebound and Kicking and Screaming, it's rare that Gatorade misses an opportunity. In addition to putting in video game appearances, Gatorade is making its mark in uncredited roles as well; in the 2005 drama North Country, the human waste in an overturned portable toilet was made of Cocoa Puffs, pumpkin pie filling and Gatorade."

Cadbury Schweppes Buys PacificHealth

There was huge news today in the sports drink world. Cadbury Schweppes has purchased PacificHealth Labs. Why is this big you ask? Because Gatorade's greatest competitor from a scientific standpoint might very well be PacificHealth Labs, which produces during exercise and post-exercise workout drinks with protein in it (Accelerade and Endurox R4). While Gatorade's Sports Science Institute has always shot down ingredients put into competitive products, they've had a hard time dismissing the effectiveness of protein. Let me make this clear -- Accelerade and Endurox R4 will never have a significant chunk of the sports drink marketplace, but the drinks are threatening in that hard-core athletes have been gravitating towards it. That's got to be one of the reasons why Gatorade started producing the Endurance Formula.

So why have some of you never heard of Accelerade or Endurox R4? Because while the idea was good, the company was losing a tremendous amount of money ($17 million, according to documents filed to the SEC) that distribution into grocery stores and supermarkets was impossible. Cadbury Schweppes' controls 7-Up, Mott's, Dr. Pepper, Welch's, Hawaiian Punch and Orange Crush. "We're certainly very excited about this ($4 million) acquisition because it gives us access to patents, technology and trademarks in the growing sports drink nutrition industry," Cadbury spokesman Chris Barnes told the Asbury Park Press.

In my book, I talked extensively about Accelerade and that the fact that it wasn't going to get widely distributed (it was also only in powder form) would make it easier for Gatorade -- should protein in a workout drink prove to be a more effective solution -- to avoid putting protein in its drink. Protein is hard to flavor and would change the consistency of Gatorade. But now that Cadbury Schweppes is behind this, will this still be the case?

Said Robert Portman, CEO of PacificHealth Labs: "In spite of Accelerade's unmatched benefits for athletes, we recognized that PHLI did not have the resources and distribution clout to launch a ready-to-drink product nationally. In the $4 billion sports drink market that is growing at the rate of 10 percent per year, the ready-to-drink form accounts for almost all of the sales."

 

Credit Gatorade or Carnation?

A while back, I interviewed Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps about his Gatorade-drinking habit. He told me he drinks about five bottles of Gatorade per day. But now this, according to an article on CBSNews.com: "During a 2004 Summer Olympics awash in controversies over steroids and supplements, one sports writer wryly noticed that top American swimmer Michael Phelps was playing it safe -- he preferred to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast between races." This was in a story about a study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Metabolism. The study talks about -- and we've talked about this before -- the effectiveness of athletes drinking chocolate milk as a recovery drink. Now Phelps probably downs both, but we always wanted to credit Gatorade for his performance. I looked into it a little more and it appears like this is legit.The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post noted that Phelps drank Carnation in between races at U.S. Trials in 2004. Gatorade doesn't sponsor Phelps, but Carnation's parent company, Nestle does. Phelps endorses Nestle's Powerbar.

Another Gatorade Disaster

To my knowledge, Gatorade has never had any recall in its history, but that doesn't mean that the iconic brand hasn't accidentally been linked to some pretty crazy events. Two murders in recent years have involved two separate people murdering their partner in marriage by tampering with fluid in a Gatorade bottle.

WNBC in New York is now reporting that school officials in Scotch Plains, N.J., pulled all bottled drinks from the school after a sixth grader at Park Middle School drank from a Gatorade bottle that apparently had a corrosive liquid inside. The girl reportedly suffered minor burns inside her mouth.

Gatorade officials issued a statement that they believe it was an isolated incident and point to police reports that mention that they believe that the bottle was tampered with after it left the plant. Police are supposedly investigating the possibility that the bottle was used to store cleaning fluid, but was accidentally put on sale.

26 Sports Drinks Per Person In 2005!

The global sports drink market grew by 10 percent in 2005, according to a company called Zenith International. The sharpest area of growth came in Eastern Europe (19 percent) and in the Middle East (17 percent), though both came from a very small base. North America remains the biggest market by far (49 percent), according to the report. Asia made up 38 percent of the market and came in second to the US in total volume. The report said that each American averaged 527 ounces of sports drinks in 2005. That's 26 Gatorades per person per year. To put that in perspective, the average person across the world drank 26 ounces. That's a little more than one Gatorade.

Interesting POWERade Lawsuit

A group of Coca-Cola bottlers -- 54, at this point -- are suing Coca-Cola because of their idea to directly ship POWERade to Wal-Marts, instead of the normal method of having trucks deliver to each store. The bottlers are reportedly worried that because they are being shipped instead of delivered, Coke could get POWERades from other stores outside its territory and ship it to one of the stores within that store's territory. Wal-Mart likes this arrangement because it lowers costs even further and cuts down the paperwork associated with dealing with a person show up at the store. The idea isn't anything new -- Gatorade has always shipped directly to stores. But the fact the Coca-Cola bottlers have always had it this way seems to be disturbing them. The irony of all this is of course the fact that when POWERade came out, the thought was that the personal delivery that Coca-Cola bottlers provided would be the death knell for Gatorade, which was then owned by Quaker Oats. By shipping instead of delivering, Quaker Oats -- it was thought -- would not be able to keep up in the same way as Coca-Cola bottlers could.

Homewreckers Ad Review

Finally had a chance to watch the Gatorade ad with Dwyane Wade, Ben Wallace and Vince Carter. I know what Gatorade was going for. It's really their first main advertising that pumps up the Fierce line. So they wanted the commercial to be Fierce. But the ad, which has the NBA players playing on streetballers, is so fast-paced that the only parts that the viewer can follow is when each of the three are chugging the Fierce Gatorade. I just think that every commercial has to have some sort of plot and this is just seemed thrown together. For those who have seen it, let me know what you think.

Thoughts On Kenseth Story

Loyal reader David Evertsen commented below on my skepticism of Matt Kenseth's dehydration story, but I thought it was worth republishing here. He seems to know more about the topic than I do.

"Matt could have been suffering from some sort of dehydration. How will we know? Not sure. I have heard of drivers being relieved do to exhaustion in my years of watching NASCAR on TV. That race being in 1999 was probably on TNT or TBS and they where more like FOX now, trying to make a story. Instead of telling what was really going on in the race. Several things could have happened. Matt being a Busch Regular in 1999 ran only 5 cup races. The difference between 300 miles and 500 miles is a big deal especially mentally. Take in effect that he was not used to the extra length of the race. Not into fitness yet and working out. He had run 300 miles the day before and hadn't recovered from the heat of that race and was not prepared for the race the next day, physically or mentally. He could have popped the wall early in the race causing an exhaust leak into the cab the car heating things up even more or just plain was not used to that much work in the heat over the weekend. Busch series races vs. Cup races length is alot, if you have not run that much before but, mentally it is extremely tough.
In the late 90's NASCAR teams (all series) where just starting the whole physical fitness thing. It is a sauna for 300 miles of 500 miles being the October Charlotte race. He would have gone to the Infield Care center and been told several things not released to the media. One of which he was flat worn out like you in your Marathon when you had problems and he had to find a better hydration strategy. It is not too much of a stretch if you look at it like that. Also the teams in the late 90's where swapping between cool suits and just cool air to the helmet which causes problems. They where also trying to solve Carbon-Monoxide entry into the cab."

Gatorade To Debut "Origins 4"

The extremely popular and effective Gatorade "Origins" spots will continue to evolve on Sunday, as the fourth iteration will debut during the broadcast of the Daytona 500 on NBC. The new 60-second spot tells the story of NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth who, according to the commercial, had a "dehydration-related crash" at Charlotte in 1999. The spot includes Kenseth, broadcaster Buddy Baker -- who was announcing that particular race, Dr. Bob Murray of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute and the voice of all the "Origins" spots, broadcaster Keith Jackson. Gatorade is using the spot to tout its real world use and specifically how its Gatorade In-Car Drinking System (G.I.D.S.) has helped drivers who have to endure long races and never have their hands completely free to sip a drink. Here's Kenseth: "During a race, my car is like an oven with temperatures exceeding 130 degrees. After my experience at Charlotte, I knew I needed to solve my problems with dehydration by making big changes to my in-race drinking strategy."

Kenseth credits his working with Gatorade to solve this problem as one of the factors that led to his 2003 Nextel Cup championship. The commercial is a very good spot. I just have one problem slight problem with it. Kenseth says that in the commercial, he hit the wall at 200 miles per hour and then forgot what happened next. But seven years later, he could recall that the fact that at the UAW-GM Quality 500 on Oct. 11, 1999, he was dehydrated? I'm not saying it wasn't possible. Although he crashed, he went for 231 laps that night and had participated in the Busch race the day before. With the other three "Origins" spots, there was factual evidence that these things happened. We know that Georgia Tech coach Bobby Dodd said that Gatorade gave the Florida kids an advantage because it was in the paper. And we know that the Kansas City Chiefs used Gatorade because it was in the newspapers and we know that Ironman Chris Legh was dehydrated as a result of what happened to his body. But, aside from Kenseth saying this happened, is there any other evidence? I scrolled through Lexis-Nexis and could not find a single refence from this race that shows that his crash that day was because of dehydration. Now, to be fair, Kenseth was a NASCAR newbie at the time and the fact that he had a bad race and crashed wouldn't exactly make him newspaper fodder to begin with. But I'm just a little surprised that Gatorade would rest the whole "Origins" franchise on trusting Kenseth. Am I wrong here? Tell me what you think.