Who Is Searching For Gatorade?
Loyal site reader David Evertsen sent me to the new Google Trends page today. It has some pretty interesting information. You can type in a word and it will tell you where in the country or the world people are searching that word. So I obviously typed in "Gatorade." And this is what I found:
1. Caracas, Venezuela, 2. Mexico City, Mexico, 3. Chicago, 4. Philadelphia, 5. Austin, Texas, 6. Miami, 7. Phoenix, 8. Boston, 9. Houston, 10. New York.
I'm not surprised about Mexico City or Chicago, but Caracas, Venezuela, would definitely not be the first city I would think of. Another interesting fact? When I type in POWERade, three Australian cities are in the top 10, and so is Toronto. Gatorade didn't have a presence in either the Land Down Under or Canada.
Some flavor thoughts:
I'm down in North Carolina for vacation, and my wife Christine pointed out, to my surprise, that Citrus Cooler was available in the Food Lion supermarket in 64 oz sizes. It was my understanding that Citrus Cooler was now unavailable, but it's there in those newly shaped "dumbell" bottles. I'm drinking it right now. Perhaps the reason that I can find it here is because Michael Jordan has some pull in this state, and he wanted Citrus Cooler back on the shelves here.
Citrus Cooler is still just a mediocre flavor. There's absolutely no need for it when we've got flavors like Mango Electrico Xtremo, which is similar but far superior. But, this gives me hope that Gatorade will be bringing back some other old flavors. I've still got my fingers crossed for Iced Tea coming back - that's the only U.S. release that I've ever missed out on.
On the way down to NC, stopped in a 7-Eleven in Aberdeen, MD to pick up a bottle of Victory Lane Orange gatorade. It's been a year since I had Cooler Orange, but I really think that this is a different flavor. It's got much more of a cherry flavor than I recall Cooler Orange having, though it's not like I'm tasting them side by side. Having tasted it, I'm going to assume that it's a totally different flavor. I don't know why Gatorade would just repackage a flavor again, when they've always made their special edition flavors slight variations on regular flavors (such as ESPN the flavor). So I think it's new.
In other flavor news, I see that Gatorade has released a new Fierce flavor, Wild Berry. Haven't noticed it in any stores yet, though I might have missed it due to its similarity to Fierce Grape.
Posted by: Greg DeSantis | May 15, 2006 at 04:14 PM
Citrus Cooler is available in Orlando in 32oz again. The Mobil station I go to near work has a tone of it and I haven't seen it in a while. MJ has nothing to do with it ...
Posted by: David Evertsen | May 15, 2006 at 10:19 PM
I may have some insight as to why Gatorade would be a popular search term coming out of Venezuela. From 1999-2001 I lived in Venezuela (Maracy--home of Miguel Cabrera). Once I fell ill with some flu-like symptoms. A local friend told me to go to the pharmacy to buy some Gatorade. It turns out that Gatorade is considered medicine in Venezuela. Incedently, Halls cough drops are considered candy. The only places I could buy Gatorade at that time in that region of Venezuela were pharmacies and large, North American-style chain supermarkets. Smaller markets and bodegas did not carry Gatorade.
Posted by: Ben Leimbach | May 22, 2006 at 04:24 PM