Street King had spent only about a year on store shelves when the entire category ran into trouble. In the fall of 2012, Americans began to worry about energy drinks and shots—which contain high levels of caffeine and frequently other stimulants as well—after the FDA confirmed five reports of Americans having died after consuming them. A January 2013 study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration showed that energy drinks resulted in 20,783 emergency room visits in 2011. By the summer of 2013, the American Medical Association called for a ban on the marketing of such drinks to consumers under 18, and energy drink brands took a beating in a U.S. Senate hearing criticizing youth-targeted marketing practices that Democratic Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) characterized as, “Hook ’em early, keep ’em for life.”
Suddenly, Street King—which launched with a jet-black bottle, glittery-gold lettering and a brooding 50 Cent pictured in the marketing—didn’t look so kingly. As Peterson delicately put it, “There was apprehension about the category, and we weren’t helping that.” SK’s original bad-boy image was also doing little to attract female consumers.
It also conflicted with the brand’s halo policy of openly disclosing its caffeine content (250mg, about as much as a tall-size Starbucks coffee) and of refusing to use stimulants like taurine and guarana. In putting forth a new public face for the brand, Peterson said, “The goal was to be lighter, more positive and universally appealing.”