Beware: Red Bull does NOT give you wings!

Red Bull would send you either a $10 check or $15 worth of its products if you purchased one can of Red Bull energy drink in the past twelve years. No proof of purchase necessary. A few plaintiffs in New York and California realized that Red Bull had neither gave wings nor helped boost their performance and reaction speed. Red Bull settled the class action law suit for $13 million to avoid the “cost and distraction of litigation”.

Disclosure: I am not a fan or consumer of energy drinks or shots.

Benjamin Careathers of New York, representing the class action, claimed he had been drinking Red Bull since 2002. The suit also alleges that Red Bull falsely advertises its superiority with two-decade long slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” and claims about increased performance and concentration. And this is consistently repeated in all media executions and channels.

Is Red Bull being unfairly targeted? Red Bull has been a dominant vanguard of the Energy Drink industry that grew to nearly $7 billion in 2013 according to Forges. 5-hour Energy makers have also been sued by Oregon, Vermont and Washington for “deceptive and misleading” advertising such as “Hours of energy. No crash later.” More states are expected to follow suit, citing health concerns unsubstantiated by FDA.

Does Red Bull law suit set a dangerous precedent? I can think of a few brands that have thrived on similar exaggerated claims. Unilever’s Axe Body Spray has done remarkably with its playful Axe Effects campaigns. Angels (models) fall from the sky for an average-looking Axe body spray user in one of its TV ads.

Nike’s shoe brands endorse world’s best athletes so as to be associated with and suggestive of extraordinary performance. How about a non-aspirational brand like Dell with its slogan “The Power to Do More”?  More important, how does an advertiser use puffery without being accused of falsehood?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/05/08/energy-drinks-could-be-the-growth-driver-for-coca-cola-in-the-domestic-market/

http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10

http://www.today.com/health/5-hour-energy-drink-makers-sued-false-claims-1D79944518