Liquid Death. You might be thinking of an alcoholic drink, energy drink, or even some concoction a friend has made you. In fact, it's actually the name of a canned water brand, and it’s showing up on your energy drink shelves.
At first glance, the canned water looks like a craft beer, and that’s not by accident. The clean, minimal design makes them stand out from the crowded, busy noise of other larger brands. Turns out, the same holds true with the unhealthy canned drink category.
In addition to the design, the company tells the story of how “Water isn’t cute. Water is deadly.” through a two-minute video, that has reached over 2 million views now on Facebook. They go on to say how water is actually more dangerous than energy drinks because water kills innocent surfers, snowboarders, and kayakers, and energy drinks don’t. You can even die from drinking too much water through water poisoning. The energy drink industry spends millions of dollars to be the most exciting and dangerous company, but in reality, they are only competing with water.
Water has historically been advertised and designed to look sleek, dainty, and feminine- but that’s not what the whole market looks like. The creator of Liquid Death, Mike Cessario, made a compelling argument about how unhealthy brands are speaking the youth culture’s language and the healthy brands are not. People are increasingly moving towards a healthier lifestyle, but they don’t want to sound or look like the stigmatized yoga water drinkers.
Everything about this product shouldn’t be, and that’s exactly what makes it so interesting and attractive. Water shouldn’t look like a beer, and water shouldn’t be sold with energy drinks. At first thought, nothing about water makes you think danger or energy. It’s through the brand's use of design and storytelling that it makes everything work so well and disrupt the energy drink category.
Great design and storytelling is proven to leave a lasting impression on us and has the power to change our thoughts and perceptions towards a brand. We are almost programmed as humans to tell and listen to stories. It’s through these mediums, like design and storytelling, we’re able to connect with people and ultimately brands.
This type of disruption to the market makes us excited for other healthy brands to follow suit - to create packaging and copy, that together, speak to the healthy audience, but doesn’t look like it. Perhaps an adult chocolate milk rebrand is next? We hope so.