It turns out that K-Fee, the company that pushes its energy drink with the scary TV ads, has a English-language website. It also turns out they’ve got the scary car ad and eight others online. Here they are:

• Angler
• Car
• Buddha
• Golf
• Beach
• Meadow
• Yoga
• Soothing Waves
• Ocean Path

tags: angler, beach, buddha, car ad, energy drink, ghost, ghosts, k-fee, k-fee energy drink, kfee, kfee energy drink, scary, scary tv ad, scary video, tv, tv ads, video, waves, yoga

Based on the search terms people come to this site with, I know that there’s a bunch of folks looking for the “energy drink ad,” or “K-fee TV commercial,” or “scary German,” or some such. Most people end up finding my story about Zygo energy vodka, and completely miss my story about the (deceptively titled) serene, calming video where I first linked the energy drink TV.

Let me eliminate the confusion now. The K-fee energy drink TV commercial is here (or there, or there).

[update:] There’s another K-Fee ad in a similar style.

[update:] this entry was moved from Jan 4 because some search engines haven’t found the right link to it yet.

[update:] The Lycos.de link is dead and another of the links above now redirects to a forum that has a link to the file. Find it there, or follow this direct link.

[update:] I think all the above links are dead, though these links appear to be working now: scary car commercial and scary yoga video. Look for more links in the comments below.

tags: car ad, energy drink, freaky, ghost video, kfee, pastoral scenes, popup video, relaxing, relaxing video, scare your pants off, scary tv ad, scary video, serene, serene music, tv ad, video, yoga ad

Cola wars are one thing, but “altbev” sure has come a long way since soft drink makers identified the market segment in the 90s. Coke’s Fruitopia was among the entries from the majors, but, as usual, it’s the independents that have lead the way. Water remains the leading altbev, but energy and “health” drinks are squeezing the market. Just as Coke and Pepsi were developing their bottled water brands to catch up with Poland Spring (owned by Nestle, by the way), Red Bull appeared and turned things upside down. Sure, Red Bull wasn’t the first energy drink, Jolt proved that over-caffeinated soda (how much caffein?) could sell well and Krank20 did the caffeinated water thing early on. But Red Bull found its place and took off. The small can, the list of hard to pronounce energy enhancing ingredients that sounded somehow natural and healthy, the late 90s economic bubble, and post Starbucks caffeine chasers looking for the next buzz all fell together just right.

Coke tried to follow Red Bull and Pepsi tried their own new products, but their attempts just seemed to legitimize Red Bull’s place. Importantly, however, people just couldn’t come up with a reason to switch from Red Bull. As much as they tried, nobody could differentiate between one caffein buzz or another, so the first to market had a huge advantage in field (which isn’t to say that the drinks don’t have detractors).

The real winner for any beverage, however, is when it becomes part of a popular mixed drink. Jack and Coke, rum and Coke, Seven and Seven, and now Red Bull and Vodka are part of our mixology.

With drinking and hard liquors back in fashion, nobody imagined it would take long for distillers to try to capitalize on Red Bull’s success. Enter Zygo, the “morning vodka.” I’m not sure what zygo means, but Google lists a lotta hits that aint vodka, including interferometers and augmentative communication devices.

Ken, a co-owner, appears to be a New Hampshire boy (he describes it as “north of Boston”), but the hooch is brewed from potatoes in Idaho. The 70-proof liquor boasts taurine, d-ribose, guarana and yerba mate among its energy enhancing additives. I was amused to find Ken working the drinking community with a post to ClubPlanet.com.