Cynically marketed, toxic and disturbing: Why Red Bull is Britain's real drink problem



As acting headmistress of Chatsmore Catholic High School, Anne Ward has no doubt grown all too familiar with the day-to-day challenges of running a mixed secondary school - sloppy dress, over-enthusiastic use of make-up, even the occasional unacceptable haircut.

Never, however, can she have imagined that she would find herself locking horns with one of the world's biggest businesses in a war of words over a fizzy drink.



Popular with the young: Red Bull is perceived as cool

But so it transpired recently when Miss Ward hit the headlines by banning her pupils from drinking the caffeine-based Red Bull.

The reasoning was simple: children consuming the energy drink (with the advertising slogan 'Red Bull gives you wings') had been misbehaving.

'We noticed a change in the behaviour of some of our students, and when we investigated we found they had been buying these drinks on the way to school,' says the head of the 600-pupil school in Worthing, West Sussex.

'Students are finding themselves getting into difficulties, and we don't want it escalating.



'They are drinking more caffeine, which is making them hyperactive in some lessons because they haven't had the time to run off all that energy.



'They are noisier and may not respond to instructions.



'Some are coming in later than they should do.'

Strong words - and ones that the drink's manufacturer does not want to hear.



Banned from sale

It runs a highly lucrative operation - Red Bull sell more than three-and-a-billion cans and bottles a year in 143 countries worldwide.

In Britain alone, it sells £271 million worth of the stuff each year.

The only fly in the ointment is that this extraordinary product is coming in for growing criticism.



And it's not just Chatsmore Catholic High that's having a dig.

Red Bull has been banned from sale in Norway, Denmark, Uruguay and Iceland, while health departments in France, Ireland, Turkey, Sweden and the U.S. have expressed concern.



A spate of medical studies have also highlighted potential problems.



But what is perhaps most relevant to 21st-century Britain is the role of Red Bull in our binge-drinking culture.



Billionaire: Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and driver Vitantonio Liuzzi

Mixed with vodka, it has become a staple of the student and twenty-something hard-drinking crowd - an ideal way to keep partying longer and harder.

Indeed, in a devastating analysis of Britain's binge-drinking epidemic, Chief Constable Stephen Otter, head of the Devon and Cornwall police, found that the typical consumption for a young British woman on a night out was eight vodka and Red Bull cocktails.



What he did not point out is that in terms of caffeine intake alone, that was equivalent to drinking 16 cups of instant coffee.

And the real trouble, say experts, is that mixing caffeine, a stimulant, with alcohol, a depressant, is like getting into a car and applying the accelerator and brake pedals at the same time.

Thrill-seeker: Britney Spears on a 5am Red Bull buying spree



'The symptoms of drunkenness are reduced - but not the drunkenness itself,' says Professor Mary Claire O'Brien, an American doctor, whose research into the subject was recently published. 'They can't tell if they're drunk. They can't tell if someone else is drunk. So they get hurt - or they hurt someone else.'

Indeed, as we shall see, her research makes a direct causal link between Red Bull and the sort of binge-drinking mayhem on many British High Streets each weekend.

Most shockingly of all, she claims that women who go on a vodka and Red Bull drinking session are twice as likely to be taken advantage of sexually as those who drink vodka on its own.

Could this really be true?



Could a drink that is ruthlessly targeted at young thrill-seekers, and which increasing numbers of children consume in school playgrounds along with their packed lunches, also be a contributory factor to the violent, anti-social and dangerous behaviour that characterises Britain's binge-drinking epidemic?

The evidence is certainly compelling. To understand the controversy surrounding Red Bull, it is first necessary to understand the product.



Based on a little-known Thai 'health' drink, popular with long-distance truck drivers, it was stumbled upon in the early Eighties by Dietrich Mateschitz, the marketing director of an Austrian toothpaste company.



He found that the ingredients in the drink helped cure his jet lag and, together with a business partner, he invested £500,000 in bringing his discovery to the European market. '

There exists no market for Red Bull,' he said at the time of its launch, 'but we will create one.'



Exposure: British racing driver David Coulthard is a member of Red Bull Racing team

In business circles, he is regarded as a genius.

Today, there is scarcely a newsagent, petrol station or pub that doesn't stock Red Bull.



The drink costs between 90p and £1.35 for a 250ml can, which is more expensive than a larger can of Coca-Cola.

So what is its magic formula? Pick up one of its distinctive blue and silver cans and there are 12 listed ingredients.



But only three are of particular interest. They are caffeine, taurine and glucuronolactone.

The first, caffeine, is all too familiar. One can of Red Bull contains roughly the same amount of caffeine as a cup of filter coffee - or two cups of instant.



Drunk in moderation, caffeine is a stimulant and drinking it 'wakes up' the person, giving them a jolt. But drunk in excess, it can lead to insomnia, anxiety and hyperactivity.

Taurine is an organic amino acid in the human body.



It moves salts (containing metals such as sodium and potassium) in and out of our body's cells, and it is also claimed to boost metabolic rates.



Urban myth long had it that the taurine in Red Bull was extracted from bulls' semen. It isn't - it is produced synthetically.

Finally comes glucuronolactone, which is found in the body as a substance produced by the metabolism of glucose in the human liver.

Again, the type in Red Bull is synthetic.



What really constitutes a safe amount?

While it is thought to fight fatigue and provide a sense of well-being, little research has been done into it or what constitutes a 'safe' amount.

So much for the contents. Who exactly is going to benefit from drinking Red Bull?

According to the blurb on the can, the drink 'improves performance, increases concentration and reaction speed, improves vigilance, stimulates metabolism'.

From that, it might be imagined that the target audience would be relatively small - sportsmen and sportswomen seeking a boost in training and competition, perhaps. But in reality its appeal has proven to be much wider.

The latest report by analysts Mintel says that Red Bull has a dominant 43 per cent share of the energy drinks market in Britain - which is particularly popular with teenagers.



Alfredo Duran died of a heart attack after consuming large amounts of Red Bull. An inquest heard the 40-year-old had an enlarged heart and the caffeine may have triggered the attack

Up to 40 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds drink them, compared with just 19 per cent of people aged 45 to 54.

Even among children as young as 12, almost 30 per cent are regularly consuming energy drinks.

Given those statistics, it can be stated with confidence that the pupils of schools such as Chatsmore Catholic High School represent a significant market for Red Bull.

All of which makes the company's response to last week's news all the more surprising.

After the story became public, a spokesman for Red Bull said: 'People have different sensitivity to caffeine (and) the daily consumption of Red Bull should conform to a person's intake of caffeine - and the same is true for children.

'However, in general, children are more sensitive to caffeine than adults.

'This is why we do not recommend Red Bull to caffeine-sensitive individuals, including children.'

If so, why is this recommendation not carried on the can?



In Canada, cans of Red Bull carry the warning: 'Not recommended for children, pregnant or breast-feeding women, caffeine-sensitive persons or to be mixed with alcohol.'



Why not in Britain?

A spokesman refused to go into this, simply stating that Red Bull conforms fully to the EU regulations for caffeinated drinks. By this he means that the words 'high caffeine content' are carried on the back of the can - a 'warning' that will hardly mean much to most children.

Even more cynical is the way the drink is aimed at the youth market. Ever since its European launch in 1987, it has associated itself with sports such as skiing and skate-boarding, with the firm spending almost a third of its turnover on promotions. (Coca-Cola spends around 9 per cent.)

Cynical marketing techniques



'The company avoids standard TV advertising in favour of word-of-mouth (or buzz) marketing,' says the Mintel report.



'It sponsors dozens of extreme sports events and cultural events targeted at the young...The drink is associated with dangerous, on-the- edge, adrenaline-fuelled activities.'

Through this association, Red Bull aims to strike a chord with teenagers' and young people's inherent desire for rebellion, risk-taking and adventure. And it has succeeded.

The product is perceived as 'cool' and 'edgy'.

To further differentiate the drink from other products, Red Bull has long-employed various unconventional 'viral' marketing techniques.

Students are paid to hand out free cans of Red Bull on campuses, while the internet has become a key tool for 'hands-off' advertising.

On Facebook, the social networking site popular with so many young people, there are dozens of Red Bull-themed groups, where self-styled 'addicts' brag about how much of the stuff they drink and how much they love it.

There are also several individuals offering to supply free Red Bull for parties.

I e-mail one of them, claiming I'm 21, live in London and am having a bash where I intend to hold a mammoth vodka and Red Bull drinking session. Could he help?

'Sure thing,' comes the reply. 'How does it work?' I ask. 'Do I have to hand over some money?'

'You don't have to pay a thing,' he answers. 'The company feels this way people will remember Red Bull in a positive way if they know they're helping out students by giving them gifts (or something like that).

Drinkers claim using Red Bull helps extend party sessions



'Either way, it makes my job a lot easier not having to sell any!



'All we ask for in return is some photos of the party atmosphere with some Red Bull cans around. Nothing too arranged (as in people posing with cheesy smiles, holding a can with their thumbs up), just some casual party shots.'

Which brings us to the subject of Red Bull mixed with alcohol.



According to the Mintel report, 48 per cent of people aged 20 to 24 believe sports and energy drinks are 'a good mixer with alcohol'.

Indeed, it is often drunk with vodka in cocktails such as Bar Slut (vodka, Red Bull, 7-Up and cranberry juice) and Annihilator (vodka, Red Bull, triple sec liqueur and lime juice.)

Red Bull is not only sweet and palatable, but the caffeine in it enables the drinker to keep going, rather than burn out too early.



Almost inevitably, this also means they will drink more alcohol - with worrying consequences.

This has been highlighted in research by Professor Mary Claire O'Brien, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina.



An emergency doctor, she was prompted to investigate what was happening after treating a dangerously drunk student.

'This particular kid was deeply comatose and when he woke up many, many hours later I said to him: 'What the heck have you been doing?'' she said.

'He told me he had been drinking Red Bull and vodka at a party.



'I asked him why and he told me it was because you can drink longer without falling over drunk.

'I was flabbergasted because my area of research is college drinking, particularly injuries related to it, and I had no idea that this was going on.'

She was even more shocked by the results of her subsequent research. It showed that those mixing Red Bull or other energy drinks with alcohol were twice as likely to be injured or otherwise come to harm as those who have alcoholic drinks on their own.

Drinking into unconsciousness



They were also more than twice as likely to take advantage of someone else sexually, and almost twice as likely to accept a lift from a drink-driver or to be taken advantage of themselves.

This added risk, it should be stressed, was found even after the extra alcohol consumed was taken into account in monitoring drinkers' behaviour.

To put it simply, instead of drinking themselves into unconsciousness, the individuals remained awake, extremely drunk - and yet unaware of how drunk they were.

You do not need to be a medical expert to deduce what a dangerous combination that is.

Dr O'Brien believes such are the risks that colleges and universities should reconsider the practice of selling discounted energy drinks during club nights.



She also questioned the marketing policies of companies such as Red Bull, who she believes are complicit in the promotion of their products as mixers.

Red Bull denies this, dismissing Dr O'Brien's findings as follows: 'This report tells us what everyone has always known: the excessive and irresponsible consumption of alcohol can have adverse effects on human health and behaviour.

'These are due to the alcoholic drink, not the mixer, be it cola, orange juice, tonic or whatever else is mixed with alcohol.'



I point out that this is not the case and that when used as mixer, Red Bull is said to be having a marked effect on drinkers' behaviour.



But the company refused to comment further.

Of course no one is suggesting that, when drunk in moderation, Red Bull is a dangerous drink. But in many ways that goes to the crux of the problem because, for Red Bull's target audience, moderation is a dirty word.

As the marketing men know only too well that they're looking for a buzz and if it means drinking five or ten cans of Red Bull at a sitting, with or without alcohol, then so be it - they'll do it.

Consider, by way of example, the following posting by a young man on Facebook.

'I was designated driver for the night when me and my mates went out,' it reads.



'I had 13 cans of Red Bull that night! We came out and I was buzzin' more than anyone else leaving the club who was hammered!! It was quality!



'Another night when I was desi [designate driver] I had seven cans of Red Bull in a really short space of time.. . that night I crashed my two-week-old car so that was not such a great night! But u gotta still love the wings, eh?'

Not everyone would agree.