Darren Rovell's Gatorade blog

Dr. Robert Cade Into UF Hall of Fame

Gatorade inventor Dr. Robert Cade was one of nine honored at halftime of University of Florida's Spring Game on Saturday. Cade is the only non-athlete in the group to be inducted into the University of Florida Athletics Hall of Fame. Cade's impact on the university was written about in an excellent article by Dave Curtis of the Orlando Sentinel.

One of my favorite parts about writing "First in Thirst" was the eccentric Cade. He's a brilliant guy who just loves life and -- although he's lost some sharpness with age -- the man is the prototypical scientist entrepreneur.

The interesting thing about University of Florida and Cade is that they sure have been honoring him lately. The College of Medicine honored him in 2004. They honored him again at a football game at halftime of a football game in 2005 and at the state legislature that year. This is all interesting because the school and the state hated Cade and the other three inventors for four years while they were embroiled in a lawsuit. Even after the University of Florida got 20 percent of the royalties, Cade was hardly seen as a valuable part of the school. It has only been in, I'd say the last decade or so that the school has appreciated Cade for what he's done. By the way, they should pay attention to the other guys now -- Dr. Jim Free, Dr. Alex De Quesada and Dr. Dana Shires. They are owed some more recognition.

Gatorade Responds To "Racist" Commercial

I'm pretty sure after a full day of hearing out plenty of people on this issue that the majority of America doesn't think that Gatorade's new commercial for its Gatorade A.M. is racist. Analyze what you want, but the whole thing basically falls apart when you realize that Kareem is watering his OWN lawn instead of someone else's. Seriously though, I'm even surprised by the reaction this received, but I believe it has something to do with all the IMUS/Rutgers banter. Anyway, Jeff Urban, Gatorade's senior vice president of sports marketing, was good enough to get on the phone with me to talk through this and here is his response:

"We chose Kevin to the play the Milkman because he's cool and playful and we thought he could bring a lot to the spot. Along with Mia Hamm as the soccer mom, he really helped draw the laughs. Kareem is watering his own yard -- in a very nice neighborhood. In the past we've seen Dwayne Wade, Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning on bodies of little kids and Derek, Peyton and Yao Ming comically playing in "Playmates" with Little Jimmy. All this was was Gatorade carrying on our tradition of putting athletes in funny situations.

Is The New Gatorade A.M. Ad Racist?

I never thought I'd be asking this. All I did was post the Gatorade A.M. advertisement and said I liked it. Then I received the comment from a woman who writes a blog called "I Need More Cowbell." Let me summarize what she wrote in her blog entry:

• She's surprised Gatorade had a black athlete (Kevin Garnett) play the black milkman "a la 1930."
• All Garnett's customers are white: Soccer players Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly, Mia Hamm and Peyton Manning.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the other black athlete in the ad, is doing yardwork. All the other athletes in the ad are white and are playing athletes.

I didn't even think this deserved the time of day and then a co-worker of mine at CNBC said he couldn't help but think when he was watching it how racist it was. I don't know, maybe I'm just cynical. But I think they just happened to cast Garnett as the milkman because he's long and lanky and looks funny in the role. As for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he's not portrayed as an athlete because he's no longer active. For the record, neither is Mia Hamm who is driving the car to pick up her fellow soccer players because she's retired as well. And on Kareem's "yardwork" role. Puhleeze. It's not like he's watering Peyton Manning's yard. I think he's watering his own yard. Well, I have a feeling this is going to be a flashpoint as much as the "Does Gatorade Have Phallic Bottles?" controversy was -- so feel free to weigh in. And so you don't have to scroll down a couple entries, here's that ad for you to watch again.

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Accelerade Finally Armed For Gatorade?

For years, we've heard from the folks at PacificHealth Laboratories with their Accelerade product. How they had the right carbohydrate to protein formula that Gatorade didn't have. How the true athletes were using their product and how the science proved that their product was better. The problem was that, at first, they didn't have a ready-to-drink product and their bigger problem was that they didn't have any money to advertise. Well, now Accelerade is being given its biggest push ever because Cadbury Schweppes bought it last year and Brandweek is reporting that the company is preparing to spend an astounding $50 million in Accelerade advertising. Gatorade currently commands 82 percent of the $4 billion sports drink market, so good luck. Accelerade is going to hit the protein point home, something that Gatorade doesn't have, but critics of Accelerade say that protein doesn't enable the product to taste as good as Gatorade and Gatorade has always contended that the benefits of during workout protein ingestion are inconclusive. Protein is most needed in the post-workout stage for muscle recovery. But Accelerade claims to increase endurance by 29 percent. At $2.79, it costs double a 20 oz. Gatorade, which I think will make it too costly for this mainstream ad buy and distribution attempt to let this all make sense. My prediction -- another Gatorade pretender. Another bust. But a good option for the hard core. Just keep this stuff and advertising to the hobby stores.

Review of Gatorade A.M. Commercial

After all my criticism of the way Gatorade A.M. was first pitched on the bottle, you'd think I would bash Gatorade A.M.'s advertising. But I love it. Because it's right. They pitched it as the Gatorade with morning flavors, which is exactly how I said they should have pitched it in the beginning. The commercial is also well executed. Love Garnett in the "Milkman" role and Peyton walking out the door. To take a look, click below.