3/1/2013
Many food and beverage makers must abide by self-regulatory guidelines that limit their ability to market their products to teens or children if they contain high levels of unhealthy ingredients such as sugar and saturated fat. In theory. Companies often skirt these regulations by claiming they only market these products to adults.
For example, Pepsi is introducing Kickstart, a caffeine-infused drink made with Mountain Dew that the company claims isn’t an energy drink. Energy drinks are widely popular among tweens and teens. And carbonated beverage marketers (which includes both soda and energy drink brands) aim their products at young drinkers, spending $82.3 million in 2009 on in-school expenditures, according to the FTC.
Kickstart contains less caffeine than typical energy drinks – 92 milligrams of caffeine in a 16-ounce can, compared to 142 milligrams for the company’s Amp energy beverage. The lowered caffeine level may reflect current controversy over the safety of the high levels of caffeine in energy drinks consumed by children and teens.
However, the company is advertising the product with ads of young athletes skateboarding, and the drink is packaged in brightly colored cans similar to those of energy drink brand Monster Energy.
Moreover, despite tasting and looking like an energy drink, Pepsi labels the carbonated Kickstart as a juice drink (the product contains 5% juice). Pepsi claims the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers Kickstart a “juice drink,” though the agency itself says it doesn’t have such definitions.
The definition of juice drinks as containing a minimum of 5% juice is set by the food and beverage industry’s self-regulatory guidelines, which are often developed in collaboration with the FDA, to outline what is acceptable to market to children and teens. Juice drinks are allowed in school cafeterias and vending machines, while energy drinks and regular soda are not. Plus, with artificial sweeteners, Kickstart contains half as many calories as soda.
Ultimately, it’s a product that seems designed to meet all of the regulations in order to be acceptable for sale to schoolchildren, though the company does not acknowledge them as a key target. That said, Kickstart is not a “bad” product. The fact that it contains caffeine shouldn’t translate to an immediate ban on advertising it to children and teens. But it seems disingenuous for Pepsi to claim that this beverage is solely for adults, when its flavor profile and packaging match the tastes of younger consumers. Transparency is an increasingly important aspect of marketing and brand reputation. – Larissa
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