It's spring two thousand and three and the natural prod expo, is underway in Anaheim, California, a middle aged man dressed in a black mister, Rogers style, zip up cardigan, hopefully wonders the stalls perusing dietary supplements and herbal teas he's minnows I'm The millionaire plastics factory owner who spent is twenty as a Hindu mock now he's looking to make another radical pivot. This sign into nutritional products suddenly a sales rep jumps out in front of it. Hi, sir can I interest you in a free energy, drink it'll, keep you active, an focused for hours, Bhargava, takes a few swigs from the sixteen ounce bottle. It taste. Okay, he thinks, but it's nothing. Special the screws. The cap back on and drops the bottle into his satchel bhargava,

the energy drink kicking in as he moves from booth to booth. He feels focused and alert and he still buzzing that evening, when he returns to his hotel room intrigued, he retrieved the bottle from his bag. He, get the ingredients list. Caffeine, taurine b, vitamins all the usual energy drink ingredients still bark this impressed, but he's also puzzled. Why sell this drink in sixteen ounce bottles? That's a lot to drink. Why do they assume that? Just because he's tired he's also thirsty it makes no sense He sits on his hotel bed. He wonders what, if the drink, in a small dose like a shot of espresso bar I envisions a concentrated energy drinks sold in two ounce bottles. Imagine these bottles sitting next to cash registers across the land. After all, if you- down your energy booster in a single gulp. There's no need

to be chilled. He pictures truck. Roadtrippers turning to his energy shot, so they Avoid the extra restroom stops caused by large energy drinks, but what would all this drink bargain not a showy guy, so he figures. The drinks name should just say what it does looks at his watch. It's been five hours since he swayed the drink at the expo. Five hour, energy that'll. Do the small idea, but it's going to have uh big impact and what's more red bull and monster. Won't even see five hour energy coming until it too. This is Definitely some exciting news. The simpsons are coming to Disney.

Brand new streaming service Disney plus the Simpsons, have become an undeniable part of television history, and this is the first time that the first thirty seasons will be available to stream completely commercial so get excited because the Simpsons and so much more will be streaming on Disney plus beginning November 12th. In the u wondering I'm David Brown, and this is business wars. You're. Listening to the final episode in our series: red Bull versus monster, Enerji buzzkill in the

episode Red Bull stormed into America, but just one victory, looks secure a California in bed, each company hit back with this per rival called monster energy. Now both monster and red bull race getting sidelined by the new guy in town who sent a through the market the small but mighty drink it's summer to as an eight and my nose bark about sits in his office in a drab business park in Farmington Hills. Michigan he's on the phone, his lawyers as the mastermind behind five hour energy listens: Agrin breaks across his face That is good news. Very good news, thanks for the update Barbara, hangs up and opens his desk drawer insider dozens of small energy, shot bottles shrink wrapped in a variety of lurid colors,

he rummages through this kaleidoscopic scene and pull out. One called six hour power barkevious. Suing the company behind it for trademark infringement, and the case is going well. He It's the bottle on his desk and grabs a small square of white cardstock stock. He skull and crossbones on the card using a black felt tip pen bhargava then the six hour power bottled in card over to a formica bookcase. The shelves are full competing energy shot bottles. Next, which one are cards, bearing felt tip eulogies. It's a graveyard of competitors Margot, but the bottle of six hour power and his skull and Crossbones doodle to the shelf. He steps back to admire his mausoleum of defeated, rivals and smiles five hour. Energy is growing fast just five years after its inception bargain

One gulp energy drink is generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Sales are up four. Hundred percent from last year. He owns ninety percent of the energy shot market. Many have replicating five hour. Energy success, but Bhargava has. Feed them all and Every time arrival falls. Another bottle joins his bookcase graveyard, but part of nose. Deadlier competition is coming If market is going to stay on top, he has to fend off the two titans the energy drink world find energy and the ensuing copycat boom, took red, bull and monster by surprise, but now they want in monster strikes for launching an energy shot called Monster hit man timber, two thousand and eight The following summer, read

Energy shots hit, convenience stores, but It got an ally powerful enough to keep a red bull and monster. Had bay, save money live better Walmart, mark of his persuaded, Walmart. To put five hour energies. Checkout aisles in all its three thousand six hundred stores, those couch are the most valuable piece of retailers. State in America and of each head that keeps five hour energy on top model here in red bull appeal to a younger under thirty crowd, who prefer larger cans of these strings. They can't make much of a day in a five hour energy market. For adults who chug this stuff to stay on, pointed at no or can they beat five hour energy on taste by two thousand and ten clear that red, bull and monster can't stop barking about the combined sales of hitman and red bull energy. Shots are less,

tenth of what five hour energies making come. Two thousand and twelve both hitman and red bull energy shots are off the market, not that red bull. Dietrich Matter. Xix is worried. Red bulls bouncing back from the brief moment in two thousand and eight when monster became a because leading energy drink red It's got a refresh promotional strategy, it's taking it where few brands, dare to go summer, two thousand and eleven helicopter covered in red. Bull logos is swoop. Sing over the mountains of chili's pad ago Nia region as the chopper Here's a craggy peak, the film crew pro snowboarders inside brain to get a better view: It's pretty gnarly out there. I think the clouds are moving. Pretty quick looks heavy hello. The is Darwin's range, one of the most in has little places on earth mountain.

Extend skywards like crooked Claus. The valley is full of vicious, looking shards of tall blue ice snowboarders are here to make a for red bull of feature length, Doc Henry called the art of flight, where they will take on some of the world's most dangerous slopes, they've, already been to some challenging locations, but this one it feels different, now. They understand why there guide didn't want to come here. He told This is where the devil lives. Maybe he was right. The pilot interrupts their thoughts, we're. Almost there we gotta, maybe forty minutes before we have to leave, I'm going to drop you and you I get moving right away. Too long. We won't have enough fuel to get back in out here. No one will coming to rescue us. Okay minutes later the snowboarders, are on their way.

The border zigzag down a tight corridor of snow bracketed by sheer rocky slopes: it's tough, but they can handle it. Then they spot a problem. It's coming up fast. A large patch of bear mountain in their path the borders grind to a halt, remove their boards clambering down the mountain, Rob crumbles away, as they try to find their footing. Eventually they make it back to the snow, but they've lost precious minutes. The helicopter is already in the valley below blades. Turning the pilot's been Crystal clear. He won't wait, he's not going to die here, no matter how much red bull is paying them strap on their boards and shoot down the slope, but at the bottom, there's. Another problem and I upstream. That looks like a slow moving Slurpee. They glanced at the water and then to the helicopter.

There's no time to waste they throw their boards over the stream plunge the bone, chilling waters and swim across shivering. Climb out of the water and run to the chopper, desperate to escape this hell hole, but back in safety, the helicopter still riding the adrenaline rush? Everyone is pop, as the head of Your lips off the camera crew gives the borders of thumbs up. The footage is good, the borders moment of death. Defying glory is captured for posterity and there one step closer to completing their movie red both spending more than two million dollars on making the art of flight. Yet no The film drinks or even mentions red bull. The only sign of red bulls involvement are the logos on the helicopter snowmobiles in borders. Wool: hats: red Bull, wants the art of flight

to stand on its own merits and a dutch opponents police in September, two thousand and eleven immediately tops the dvd Blu Ray and Itunes movie charts. This film is part of red bulls, new marketing approach, an approach built on The idea that there's a three sing high octane world of red Bull out there, that you can connect with in all kinds of ways You can watch Redbull movies and Youtube videos read it. Lifestyle magazine, listen to music from its record label and support it. Sports teams, you could red bull, close, attend action, packed red, bull events and yes, even by drink red bulls. No longer presenting itself is just a beverage. Now it's a mentality a way of life built brand values of speed by ten

flooding in adventure and the art of flight. That's just the start. It's Octo two thousand and twelve, and more than fifty million people are glued to their screens. There watching a live broadcast from red bull We see a cone shaped capsule, reminiscent of the APOLLO spacecraft, a huge white heel filled balloon is lifting the capsule high and higher into the air. Ninety thousand feet then higher still Phoenix. We only one hundred thousand feet. You still got twenty eight thousand feet to go the door open, when you champion ambient two hundred and twenty eight thousand feet and right inside the capsule is austrian, skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, he's wearing looks like a space suit. The door opens and bound steps out onto the tiny ledge of the capsule and looks down

he's so high up that he can see the earth's curve and the dark. Void of space, new Mexico lies. Twenty four miles below He braces himself and then with the world watching he steps forward has Baumgartner freefall's the world spins around him, as if he's in a washing machine, he feel like passing out speedometer on his risk reads, eight hundred and forty three miles an hour he's falling faster than the speed of sound guarantee he'll live through this. The world holds its collective bread, well then, after more than four minutes of free fall

opens his parachute stable, just sat there, you can see by the approaching shadow just about there any found on the earth safely. Back, cheers erupt from red, bull mission, control in Roswell, the red bulls. Answer. Daredevil land safely, don't grabs headlines across the world, and the payoff for red Bull is huge. Burns red bull more than one hundred million dollars worth of free media coverage sales of red bull rise. Seven percent in comparison sponsorship of Motocross bikers bull riders and monster truck events looks tame, but flashy stunts, aren't monsters style instead, monsters using a cocktail of sponsorship deals. Rock concerts and brand ambassadors and scantily clad monster girls to build a

grungy image and image. It's converting monster drinkers into loyal monster fans and it's working especially with young men. Some identify with monsters, rough and tumble image so much there pledging permanent allegiance to the brand across the country. Monster. Fans are asking tattooists to ink the drinks monster, claw logo on their bodies, months, might rarely seek the headlines, but its image inspiring extreme customer loyalty, but not to say monsters, not making headlines. Quite the opposite. Trouble is monsters in the news for all the wrong reasons, and that's because it's Enerji drink, is being called deadly. It's time,

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current best sellers like the seven habits of highly effective people. Right now you can go to blink dot com. Slash to start your free trial. Or get three months off your yearly plan. When you join today, that's blink is spelled B. L I N K. I s t blinkist dot com, Slash B, to start your free trial or get three It's off your yearly plan, dot com, Slash Bw,. December 16th. Two thousand and eleven a and her friends or at the Valley Mall in Hagerstown MD. Forty a fourteen year old girl with dark shoulder length, hair and long banks the creep into her eyes, rimmed with heavy black eyeliner. After checking, clothes stores. The friends go to the malls, candy store

Forty eight heads over to the drinks, cooler and picks out a twenty four ounce can of monster energy. She down the extra large cannon heads home the next day, she's back at the candy store, Buying another super size monster. It will be your last and nearly nine p pm that same evening, forty suffers a heart attack while watching a movie at home unresponsive. He's, rushed to a hospital and put into a coma to try and halt the swelling of her brain. She, never wakes up Six days later, on Christmas Eve, her life's I switched off the death certificate tributes. Her death to cardiac arrhythmia due to Kathy toxicity, complicating existing heart condition. The following year, forty eight

parents file a wrongful death lawsuit against monster monster Energy drink, that's what the parents of fourteen year old, niece born. Yet stake held their daughter. Now there doing the beverage company. The family really hopes that they can keep this from happening to anybody else. Monster insists its drinks are safe and pledges to fight the lawsuit, eventually The company and forty ace parents will reach an out of court settlement, but not for the legal action has whipped up a bullet call Storm Fournier's death which the Enerji drinks industry under the microscope Concerns about the safety of Enerji drinks are rising in two thousand and eight more Sixteen thousand er visits are linked to consumption of energy drinks in December two thousand and twelve the food and administration launches a probe into five deaths and and not.

Fatal heart attack link to monster the news, wipes. Fourteen percent off the value of monsters shares the the publicity, hurts other brands to the rapid, th of energy drinks. Sales in the US starts to slow politicians across the country, are now talking about curbing the sale of energy drinks to minors. It doesn't take Before the leading energy, drink brands or hall, before the Senate Commerce Committee July 31st, twenty teen Washington DC inside grand marble and Limestone Russell Senate office. Building red, bull and monster are under attack a parade health experts are testifying to senators rich energy drinks can raise blood pressure irregular heartbeats and

in danger, teenagers with underlying heart conditions. Another This produces evidence that energy drink brands appeal to under Eighteens Ray search, also shows one in five school children drink more than one enerji drink every day Illinois Senator Dick Durbin opens the assault. Now. You say you do not market your drinks to children. Well, where veterans of the tobacco wars. Remember when the tobacco companies used to tell us all we're not interested in kids we knew better. We're getting the same runaround from the energy drink companies. To illustrate their point. The senators, show the room, a copy of red bulls, red bulletin magazine. There's a twelve Euro motocross athlete on the cover. The senators also slam monster for sponsoring action, sports athletes under the age of sixteen and urging people to. Countdown it's drink,

monster. Ceo Rodney sacks comes out fighting monster does not market to children and never have primary market involves motor sports and the prime demographic for those sports is adults, not children or young teenagers. The science doesn't support the allegations being made against monster energy the caffeine in monster, is just half that of a Grande CUP of Starbucks Coffee, more than eight bill, in cans of monster have been consumed safely worldwide, since two thousand and two sax actually right about how monsters, caffeine content stacks up against Starbucks, but if he thinks read Beau will back him up. He's wrong red bull North America, marketing, boss, Amy Taylor's, got a surprise for both the senators and monster she produces a letter stating that red Bull will vote terribly commit to a series of measures to ensure its drink is not marketed to children. We will

not market red bull to those under eighteen, and we, not sell our drink in containers larger than twelve ounces, provided that our competitors do the same. It's a crafty moved monster, predominantly cells in sixteen ounce cans. It's my sister sizes quarter, which brand most Bull is sold in eight and twelve ounce cans red bull. Those there's no way monster will agree to match that promise. As a result, senators focus their bruising attacks on monster rather than red. Bull despite the heat in the room, the Senate The hearing leads to little change rather than see. To impose regulations on energy drinks, the food and Drug Administration adopts a wait and see approach to the issue. In the meantime, it urges the public to be wary.

As the talk of new regulations in the? U Fades, America, love affair with these turbocharged beverages contain used to grow the craze red bull started is now a fifty five billion dollar a year global business, doubled in size in the five years since the Senate Committee hearing today, the he drank is ingrained in our culture. The logos monster in market leader. Red bull are hard to avoid. And millions guzzle down there pick me ups everyday, but those wanting kill. The buzz around these chilled caffeine bombs haven't given up health. Continue to raise. Concerns about overconsumption of energy drinks and campaigners keep pressing curbs on their sale to under 18's measure. Is that have already been introduced in some european countries. For now, though,

hi high octane race, between monster and Redbull, to power up the world each showing no signs of slowing down what, if the expiry driving a luxury vehicle wasn't limited to just inside your car, I'm David and joining me today is Gretchen sour. She is the brand manager of Lincoln's new in Kc Gretchen. Welcome it's great to get a chance to talk with you thanks so much David, it's great to be here. I have fallen in love with this new in Kc and a lot of it has to do with that beautiful new front end on the Mkc, and this is a technologically advanced automobile. But the looks alone are just stunning: it's a vocative, the previous generation, but it has an all new face that we'll just stop you in its tracks. Can you tell me a little bit about the new exterior design have course? So, one of my favorite, you know pieces that you really had

nail in is this new signature, Lincoln Grill. It absolutely lines up our entire showroom now, in addition to that, we've also added a new exterior color called the Baltic Sea Green, which really exudes this high fashion. Luxury trend that we have going on Now we also have a really cool new interior color called Rialto, green and R. Team really got that inspiration from the Rialto Bridge in Venice ITALY, from the flowing waters beneath that bridge really a lot of focus put on the exterior and interior design of this vehicle thing that I've always loved about Lincoln Cars is the technology and Lincoln is always been a step ahead. In that front, I mean going way back if you wanted all the bells. Whistles. That meant that you were getting a lincoln, but I notice in this new two thousand and nineteen Mkc. You can even Taylor this to your own taste with the interior lighting. There's. Also, this remarkable new feature

which, when you approach the vehicle, the vehicle almost seems to welcome you electronically yeah. So I what you're referencing as are awesome, link and embrace feature at you know, anytime. You have the key on your body. You walk up to the vehicle and it lights up agreed to it. Welcomes you, I'm with led lighting. We also have the awesome, the lighting on the ground, that just sort of light that, where your feet are going to be in addition to that, when you get into the vehicle, it knows who you are, and it has its settings to the ambient lighting. So if for Christmas, I actually made the inside of my link and I'm You see green just to sort of fit in to whatever feeling I was I was going for for the day. The twenty nineteen Lincoln Mkc learn more at lincoln dot com, Slash wondering that's: Lincoln dot com, Slash W, o n d e r Y

from wondering this is business wars? We hope you enjoyed this episode and we invite you to subscribe on Apple, Podcasts Spotify. Google Stitcher Iheartradio or wherever you listen to podcasts? There's a I think, on the episode note, just tap or swipe over the cover. Art you'll also see some offers from our sponsors and we hope you'll support our show by supporting them. Now, if you like, what you've heard, we'd love it, if you could give us a five star rating and tell your friends how to subscribe, there's another way to support us and that's the answer: a short survey at wondere dot com, slash survey, what business war stories you a quick note, about conversations that you've been hearing. We can't know exactly what was said, but this dialogue is based on our best research, I'm here David Brown, Tristan Donovan, wrote this story edited by

frost. Karen Lowe is our senior producer and editor Jenny lauwers our producer, sound designed by Bay Area sound our exec, you producer. Is Marshall Movie created by our non Lopez, more wondering