Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The Way it Ought to be Done

An incredibly stupid company (my opinion, anyway) decides to market an energy drink and call it "Cocaine: The Legal Alternative". The drink began appearing in stores over the past month or so and due to its name, caused quite a stir.

Personally, I find the brand name offensive. I would never buy such a drink and if it were manufactured by a company that made products I use, I would switch companies due to my strong dislike of companies that would stick such a label on their product in an obvious attempt to gain notoriety, and supposedly sales from that notoriety. I'm obviously not alone on this as apparently the company (Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, Nv) received letters and phone calls from people who found the name offensive.

What's more is that retail outlets got flak for selling the product. So much in fact, that 7/11 decided to pull the product from its shelves.

(From MSNBC)
"Our merchandising team believes the product's name promotes an image which we didn't want to be associated with," said Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven.

What I like about this whole matter is that it fits a particular belief I have. That is: Yes, we have free speech, but free speech runs hand in hand with responsibility. In this case, Redux had the right to name its product as such, but it was an irresponsible decision to give it that particular name. I am hopeful that the company ends up losing money for this decision and finds it to have been a mistake.

6 comments:

Erik said...

Mark this time and date down:

I saw that and was shocked. I agree with you 10000000000000000% on this one.

One thing on my site I don't back down from what I say. I accept responsibility and whatever consequence comes from it unlike right-wingers who say one thing and then deny it or blame Bill Clinton.

Erik said...

By the way I was refering to this quote from you What I like about this whole matter is that it fits a particular belief I have. That is: Yes, we have free speech, but free speech runs hand in hand with responsibility. In this case, Redux had the right to name its product as such, but it was an irresponsible decision to give it that particular name. I am hopeful that the company ends up losing money for this decision and finds it to have been a mistake

You are also right about that being probably the most stupid name for a product I have ever seen.

Erik said...

Rejected names for cocaine:

Crack, Pot, Uppers, Bush (oh wait that's a downer)

Erik said...

Robert just a suggestion google search free web counters they are fun to add to your site.

Robert E Wilson said...

I have a counter. It's private. I don't feel others need to know my stats although I did mention it in my 1 Year of Drivel post.

Erik said...

You taught me something I didn't think a private counter was possible.