BevBlog

Axl Rose shocked the world last month when he finally released his “Chinese Democracy” album, but he shocked no one, it seems, more than the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The company promised in March to give everyone in America a free Dr Pepper if Rose released the album during the 2008 calendar year. At the time, the event probably seemed about as likely as someone capturing a live Montauk Monster – but the retail arrival of the album forced DPSG to own up to its promotional boast and, ultimately, receive a public lambasting from Axl Rose.

The company instituted its free Dr Pepper program by directing consumers to a web site where they could enter information to receive, by mail, a coupon for a 20 oz. Dr Pepper. The offer was initially open only during the day the album came out, but internet-enabled consumers surged to the site in excess of what DPSG was prepared for. The site choked. To compensate, DPSG extended the offer to the following day, but that did little to stem the tide of freebie-seekers who overwhelmed the site’s capacity.

Rose’s lawyers responded last week by sending  a harshly-worded letter to DPSG criticizing their “appalling failure to make good on a promise,” and demanding a public apology. They suggested that apology come in the form of a full-page ad in The New York Times.

While this is probably an instance of Rose trying to milk more publicity for his album, it must sting to be called an “appalling failure” by a man who took 14 years to assemble 14 tracks.

Economic commentators frequently point to thriving dollar store sales as a symptom of a suffering economy, and the surging supply chain that carries energy drinks to those stores may suggest coming bad news for producers of caffeine-laden beverages.

Jon Auspitz, president of Wham Food and Beverage Company, said his company buys food and beverage products nearing their expiration dates at fire-sale prices, and then sells them to charities or discount stores.

“Basically, when they have nowhere to turn, when they were going to have to pay to destroy their product, they have us pay them for the product and get it out of their place and fill a hungry belly somewhere,” Auspitz said.

He only deals with large orders, he said – at least a truckload – and in the current economy, his company has performed well.

“Our customer base has grown,” Auspitz said. “If anything, the challenge can be supply.”

But, he said, that’s not true with energy drinks. There’s almost more supply than he can deal with – and not just from small startups that shutter their offices.

“There’s more energy out there than anyone can handle,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you how many brands there are. It’s crazy.”

For business reasons, Auspitz declined to name any of the beverage companies that he works with, but said some of the big energy drinks brands “just have way too much [product.]”

“We’re talking hundreds of thousands of cases,” he said.

While the energy drink market continues to grow – up 13.5 percent September 2008 according to Information Resources Inc. – that growth has slowed significantly. IRI reported that the category expanded at more than double that rate – 34.4 percent – in the 12 months ending on July 15, 2007.

While those numbers and Auspitz’s experience suggest that energy drink firms haven’t calibrated their production to match moderating demand, he offered advice to companies that suddenly find themselves with more product than they know what to do with.

“Really, what you should do is go exhaust any avenues you have, and if you can’t move it, give us a call back,” he said. “You have to do the best you can for yourself. With us, you will lose.”

Looking for a real estate deal? Talk to Rockstar Energy – or at least its CEO, Russell Weiner.

Maybe it’s due to the flagging housing market. Maybe it’s due to the distribution deal Rockstar distributor Coca-Cola signed with Monster, but, either way, Weiner is selling his California home for the low, low discount price of just under $3 million.

Okay, you’re probably not going to find that kind of change by returning soda cans, but the Los Angeles Times reports that that price tag for the elevator-equipped 4,414-square-foot home just above the Sunset Strip fell by $2 million.

Interesting that his “must sell” price appeared only weeks after Coca-Cola announced its deal with Monster, but Weiner’s misfortune could be your gain.

If you’re the lucky millionaire bidder, you’ll get four bedrooms, four bathrooms, city views, a roof deck, a bridge to a pool and three fireplaces. If you’re real lucky, maybe Weiner will even throw in a palate of Rockstar.

PureSport, a powdered sports drink brand, launched in a Sports Authority in Chicago last week, and they brought their new spokesman: Michael Phelps.

More than 1500 fans turned out to meet the eight-time gold medal winner, but the story here is that Phelps signed on to promote a relatively small brand instead of a category standard-bearer like Gatorade.

Phelps has already appeared in a number of promotions not typical of Olympians – like Frosted Flakes, AT&T Wireless internet connection cards and Rosetta Stone language learning software. Phelps said he personally used Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese prior to the Beijing Olympics, and said in PureSport’s promotional material that he trained for his epic run using PureSport products.

“I signed on with HPL PureSport because their drinks taste great and they work,” Phelps said. “PureSport helps me with my workouts and performance and allows me to recover without soreness; it’s legal and clean.”

The Austin American-Statesman reported in August that Phelps did train using the product, developed at the University of Texas. The paper ran the article under the headline “Move over, Gatorade: UT’s mix joins the league of sports drinks,” and that title might be more appropriate than editors in Austin realized. As long as Phelps’ star power lasts, the PureSport could become a lot more prominent in the near future.

This one may just right the economy. Or kill Dr Pepper. Or Both.

Axl Rose finally set a date – November 23 – for the release of his 17-year-in-the-making album Chinese Democracy. His managers said that they’d launch the album with a monumental promotion campaign. Maybe the combination of promotional money hitting record stores and hard rock nostalgia on Wall Street will be enough to return the economy to the tech-boom state that accompanied the release of Guns N’ Roses’ The Spaghetti Incident in 1993, but if that’s not enough, Dr Pepper is there to help.

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group pledged in March to give a free Dr Pepper to everybody in America if Rose released the album anytime this year. The company probably calculated the chances of Chinese Democracy arriving on record store shelves in 2008 to be vanishingly low – like when Taco Bell in 2001 promised free tacos if the Mir space station crashed into a floating 40’ by 40’ target in the South Pacific – but now it looks like the perennially-delayed work will make it to the (17-year older) rock n’ roll public next month.

In response to the shocking announcement, DPSG has done what it can to simultaneously promote its brand, reduce the promise’s cost to the company and hedge against Rose missing his release date. Again.

To receive your free Dr Pepper, visit drpepper.com and register for a free Dr Pepper coupon. The window will only be open for 24 hours, and the coupons will take 4-6 weeks to arrive – which is a long time to wait for a soda, but, then again, we’ve waited 17 years for a rock album.

These days, beverages from teas to juices boast about their antioxidant levels. It’s the new “in” thing – like wearing two different colors of Converse sneakers when America had a Punky Brewster sense of style – but at least one company took it took too far, according to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The NAD investigated Bossa Nova’s advertising claims that their product contains the more antioxidants than anybody else, and suggested that the juice company not make such claims in the future. The fancy charts they use in their promotions show that acai is the highest antioxidant fruit. The NAD didn’t dispute that claim, but said the juxtaposition with Bossa Nova’s packaging “could be reasonable interpreted to be representative of the antioxidants of the advertised product when that is not the case.”

Bossa Nova said they disagreed – that their claims are supported – but agreed to take the NAD’s findings into account for future advertising and packaging.

Does this boil down to a case of self-regulatory finger-wagging? Or should beverage marketers take head for fear that federal regulators could come next?

In any event, we could have used the NAD’s advice when we all wore mismatched sneakers.

Beverage manufacturers have bottled a lot of unlikely drinks over the years – pickle juice comes to mind – but Jon Wilt may have the strangest idea in recent history.

He’s bottled blocks of ice.

You read that right. Blocks of ice. Mr. Wilt is doing the same thing you’ve done in the past – sticking a bottle of water in the freezer ahead of a hot day – but on a large scale.

Under the name Fria Frozen Water, Wilt has gotten his product into 12 stores, and is working on more, according to the Arizona Star. Wilt says he’s slowly (glacially?) gaining a following, but knows he’ll have to shift gears when the winter comes.

At that point, he will introduce his first line extension: un-frozen bottled water.

Somehow, I think this might get an icy reception.

Read more here.

In one of the stranger quirks of the now-global “Cola Wars,” Pepsi and Coke squared off over the rights to promote themselves on the hopes of an Olympic boxer from Thailand.

Reuters reported that a Thai Pepsi distributor beat Coke to the punch by setting up promotional tents at Worapoj Phetkum’s home. Coca-Cola’s Thai agents countered by cutting a deal with the boxer’s father, Thaweep. Thaweep declared that both companies can stay, as long as they behave.

“If they make problems, both will have to leave,” Thaweep told Reuters.

In other words, he wants a good, clean fight.

Don’t expect this one to slither into the U.S. market.

Japan Tobacco Inc. introduced a new drink in Japan called “Unagi Nobori,” or, “Surging Eel.” While animal names are common for beverages, this one takes its moniker more literally than Red Bull or Venom.

Unagi Nobori contains extracts from the head and bones of the serpentine fish. If that’s not enough, the drink is formulated to taste like the slithery sea-beast.

The Japanese believe that consuming eel boosts stamina in hot weather. I believe that drinking an eel flavored beverage would boost my lunch out of my gut.

Typically, the only good way a mouse and a beverage bottle go together is when Disney partners with Coke for a promotion. Any other combination of rodents and refreshments usually induce screaming, lawsuits and bad PR, but Green Bottle USA has a new way to combine the two.

The company markets a humane mouse trap called “Catch a Mouse.” Customers attach an empty bottle to the mechanism and wait for the little critters to find their way in. Once in, they can’t get out, and you have yourself a mouse in a bottle.

From there you can release the critter a safe distance from your home, or dispose of the pest without need to touch it directly.

Or, you could stick it in the fridge and see how people react. But you shouldn’t do that. And if you do, you shouldn’t tell anyone where you got the idea.