Gatorade-POWERade War Hardly Over

The lawsuit might be settled, but don't think the tensions have been eased in the Gatorade-POWERade war. As evidence, check out the Wall Street Journal today. Here's Gloria Garrett, who has the amazing title of vice president of hydration for Coca-Cola: "Our advertising will maintain the central theme of the campaign, which is that POWERade Option has fewer calories than Gatorade. We have agreed to modify the commercials to be clearer that POWERade Option has both fewer calories and less carbohydrate energy than Gatorade."

So maybe POWERade can't claim that its Option drink gives you more energy that Gatorade, but I do believe Coca-Cola can get away with continuing to compare Option to Gatorade. I've said before I don't think they should be able to do this because it's a what economists call a spurrious correlation. That is, it's comparing two unlike things. But I don't believe that there is anything that can legally stop POWERade from trying to sell its Option drink to Gatorade drinkers.

I guess all the power to them. Gatorade doesn't try to sell Propel to Gatorade drinkers, but there's nothing to stop POWERade from trying to sell Option to the POWERade or Gatorade crowd. That's their choice. I believe that the people at Gatorade believe that a sports drink by definition has to have a certain amount of salt in it and Option doesn't have the required amount. But convincing the FDA and the FTC of that fact will be a chore.

Comments

[anon]

OPTION has the sodium. It's the missing carbs that Gatorade claims doesn't qualify it as a 'sports drink'. Not sure how they nominated themselves to define it.