The burning question about the drink in the media has been the taste and quality, but the attraction has nothing to do with either of those things...
As an avid twitter user, I have been loosely following the progress of Prime since KSI and Logan Paul announced its creation in January of 2022. This announcement came with much attention from the internet stars' followers, and shortly after when the drink was made available, it was flying off the shelves in Europe and North America. So much so, there would be hordes of shoppers fighting over the energy drink just so they could feel a part of the internet movement, or sell it on auction websites for a quick few bob.
This led to media outlets questioning the "hype" over such a drink, whereby UK local news websites did a "taste test" to see what the fuss was all about. Unsurpisingly, it's just a normal energy drink, not great, not terrible. Their coverage of the drink would also drive engagement with a name as big as Prime, so there's that too.
The thing is, they're all completely missing the point, a quick google search confirms this. The reason why people (mainly teenagers) are amassing in Aldi and Lidl to empty their piggy banks on a drink which is not too dissimilar to Powerade is something much wider than the drink itself.
It's to do with the cult of celebrity, as written by Cooper Lawrence in his book which takes an internal look at ones' values as a result of celebrity worship, and Samantha Barbas in the more ethnographic study of film stars and celebrities between WWI and WWII. Since the advent of familiar faces on the silver screens in cinemas across the world between 1918-1939, Hollywood has become the factory from which celebrities have been churned out. They subsequently become vehicles with which corporations can advertise their product through, so that consumers such as you and I assimilate such products with their favourite celebrities and therefore buy them. Think of perfume adverts for example; they typify this sort of celebrity endorsement that I speak of.
This concept of celebrities as sponsors of branding is no different with social media today, and I would argue that it has been exarcebated by such a platform. Like with Hollywood, which would create enormous celebrities through its use of media, social media has allowed ordinary, "non-established" (as in not projected on every screen globally by Hollywood) people to become famous, and thus their advertisement endeavours begin. This is no different with KSI and Logan Paul, who have become giants of the internet by curating engaging content with which many viewers enjoy. Anything they produce, their fans avidly and idly will engage with.
The same attitude that led people to wear David Beckham's aftershave, or watch Alan Sugar's The Apprentice, or drive whatever car Matthew McConaughey is driving, is what we're seeing with Prime energy drink. It's the obsession of like-minded people who enjoy a certain celebrity's content to buy in to that identity and social prestige that they think comes with it. Personally, I think that's capitalist nonsense, designed to maximise profits out of consumers via false prosperity and trendsetting like we see so much of today on social media. It's quite saddening to see videos of people fighting over an energy drink, because of what it entails. Scary, almost.
But that's the reason we see such hype over an energy drink that, all in all, isn't that impressive. It's a result of the Western economic values that we have succumbed to, prioritising image over experience in exchange for our money.
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