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Big personalities and big brands are a part of American business.  This can be seen clearly in the energy beverage market. Just look at the names of top brands: Monster, Red Bull, Rock Star, Bang.  Subtle is not the game here.  Same goes for some of the people. 

One of the loudest personalities can be found in Jack Owoc, the brash and controversial founder of Bang Energy, and its parent company, Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX).  Bang rolled out in 2012 and by 2020 was the number three Energy drink in America behind Red Bull and Monster. Owoc, the former teacher-turned billionaire was challenging top beverage companies from Monster to Pepsi and ruffling feathers in the process. 

So when headlines hit in March that he was out of this own company the ripples were throughout the beverage sector. After a series of lawsuits ended in big-money judgments against him and the company, filing for bankruptcy, and battles with competitors and distributors, Jack Owoc got the boot from the company he founded decades earlier. 

Everything about the rise and fall of this former science teacher-turned-entrepreneur is an American story, even the parts that make it decidedly Floridian. Maybe especially those.

“Jack Owoc, the controversial CEO and founder of Bang Energy maker Vital Pharmaceuticals, is out as the company’s chief executive and chief science officer, and from its board of directors, where he had served as chairman. John C. DiDonato, Vital’s chief transformation officer, has been appointed interim CEO in addition to his existing role, effective immediately.” - BevNet.com  

The news that Owoc was out of the company he started and loudly lead made headlines. Sure he was polarizing but that happens.  We’ve seen a lot of headlines of Trump endorsing, Turning Point USA supporting, Covid restriction flouting, employee mistreating CEOs and founders.

How did he go from starting a company, to making it number three in a competitive market, to losing it? 

That’s a tale as Florida as the man himself. 

There are parts of this story that are absolutely ridiculous and absurd. I laughed out loud reading some legal documents because of claims that Owoc made. (The claim Bang energy "reversed mental retardation" got me. Like, what?! Well, his alignment with Trump tracks.)  It’s bananas that adults actually made these claims publicly, let alone other adults had to go to court over them, but this is the world we’re in.  And while his tacky clothes, bad Flava Flav medallion imitating, 80s wrestling performance worthy antics, and divisive political investing are offensive in many senses, visceral and intellectual, there’s also something problematic about the monopoly that is the beverage market.  That stands out.  That part of the story should alarm us all because competition is fair play.  Only a few brands have much of the beverage market share.  And as we are witnessing the end of Owoc’s expansion, that seems poised to continue.

“Since Red Bull landed on US soil a quarter-century ago, more than 1,500 rival brands have been introduced here.  Most don’t exist anymore.  It’s hard to entice investors.  Products fight for limited shelf space in stores.  And industry veterans say most new drinks simply aren’t novel or particularly good.  This bleak backdrop makes Bang’s success all the more remarkable." Bloomberg

“Red Bull was the leading brand within the United States energy drinks market in the 52 weeks ending on May 15, 2021 responsible for almost one half of all sales.  This translated into sales of around 6.85 billion U.S. dollars for the energy drink brand.  Monster Energy followed in second place, with 30 percent market share.  VPX, Rockstar, and Reign also featured in the top five energy drinks of 2022.” - Statista 

Efforts to keep an industry devoid of fair competition is something we should all care about, no matter how repugnant or bottom of the barrel, poster boy for all-that-is-bad-in-Florida-and-American-business one might find Owoc to be. He was the sole owner of Bang Energy, there were no investors, and yet lost his company. A company that was gaining on big competitors and is now going backwards - in an industry that has had few new stars. 

That’s worth a closer look.

The Rise

Jack Owoc is 61-years-old from South Florida. The story goes when young he got interested in bodybuilding and supplements, studied chemistry in college, and after being a high school science teacher for some years, in 1993 opened small sports supplement store. VitaHouse, according to Bloomberg, was “Vitamins in the front, house in the back.” (Are you hearing the mullet anthem as well?) The parent company was called Vital Pharmaceuticals. 

From there he started to build his supplements retail store and eventually made millions, always with his loud style. Wearing Muscle T‘s he called himself the supplement guru, and racked up patents, and’ as he says conducted lots of scientific research. 

“Owoc says his entire career is a campaign against supplement companies peddling shady products. “I was tired of the lies and deception,” he wrote on Bang’s website. His social media accounts are peppered with videos in which he explains in intricate detail why his products’ bold claims, unlike those of others, are actually true.

He did the same thing in glossy magazines he produced in the 1990s, after he’d opened VitaHouse. He usually dropped some off a few doors down at Gold’s Gym. “His articles were packed with information that was difficult to decipher for a person who didn’t have a science background,” says Joe Troccoli, who worked at Gold’s. “You didn’t know if he was baffling you with bullshit, or if he was real. But God bless him—as long as you’re not hurting anyone.” - Bloomberg 

In 2012 he introduced Bang, a carbonated sugar-free drink with caffeine geared to the workout scene and demo he knew well.

“…in 2019 sales shot through the stratosphere, roughly tripling to $1.3 billion, and Bang’s market share reached 9%, compared with about 0.5% two years before.” Bloomberg 

That’s some growth - and you know the other brands were watching.  Indeed they had been for a while.  Monster sued Owoc’s company in 2008 alleging deceptive practices in marketing (is this ever a theme here.) It settled out of court but this suing back and forth was just beginning for these companies, and not just in America. 

An article had the following observation: from Comedian Morgan Leinwohl, “Jack is if Florida was a person.” 

He says things to his employees like, “the king doesn’t come to you. You come to the king.” 

One lawsuit by Monster says he claims that “the product can reverse mental certification. It cannot.” That was not the only claim. 

At events those working in the booth are called “bang girls”.

He called scientists who did studies of his claims and didn’t find what he stated: “a bunch of little bitches.”

He uses the third person often, as well as playground-like insults for his adversaries:

“Jack Owoc is just too scientifically sophisticated for Sacks to compete. It’s an unfair match—Owoc competing against Sacks/Monster is like Michael Jordan competing against a junior varsity high schooler.”

“Owoc is known to fire people public-execution-style, using email and copying scores of other employees.  According to court records, he once accused his general counsel of racketeering and embezzlement and later explained the attorney’s termination in a memo: “Tomfoolery was at an all-time high and we had no choice except to excise the cancer and get it out of our organization before it metastasized and killed the host!”  The attorney is now suing Owoc for libel.” Bloomberg 

He was asked why a camera was following him around an event.  “This will be a ‘shockumentary.’  It’s not the normal documentary where you sit there and question and answer and it’s very boring.”

And finally, although there are many more moments illuminating his way with people: 

“Many also expressed amazement that PepsiCo, the corporate equivalent of a plain gray suit, would link arms with Owoc.  One associate recalled a meeting with representatives of Walmart Inc. where Owoc projected a slide featuring three images: one of Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz; one of Monster co-CEO Rodney Sacks; and one of himself, shirtless, flexing his bicep.  The slide’s caption read, “Who’s your daddy?”

I mean the similarities to Trump are so clear it’s no surprise he gave $250,000 to his PAC. 

Nor that he had a money gun he shot at a Turning Point student eventduring Covid that flouted protocols.  An event Bang sponsored.

So yes, that was his rise.  Which is clearly also part of the fall. As the saying goes, you can’t plant an apple seed and expect lemons to grow.

The Fall

“Energy drinks are one of the top selling packaged beverages in the United States. In 2019, energy drinks accounted for 31 percent of the dollar sales of packaged beverages sold at U.S. convenience stores. Between 2018 and 2019, the sales volume of energy drinks grew by nearly nine percent.” Statista 

“The statistic illustrates the sales growth of the leading energy drink brands in the United States in 2022. VPX Bang reported a sales growth of 3.2 percent in the U.S. compared to the previous year.” Statista

No matter the industry disrupting brand with a variety of popular flavors and growing popularity, the lawsuits and Owoc’s anticstook their toll. 

The man with the self appointed title "Chief Science Officer" forced his employees to attend a work event without Covid safety protocols in March of 2020.  The employees were required to attend or else take paid time off.

“Florida has hundreds of confirmed cases of coronavirus and nine deaths, and the state health department is asking residents to stay home and avoid crowds.

But that didn’t stop Vital Pharmaceuticals, maker of the colorfully marketed BANG Energy drink, from ordering more than 200 employees to assemble Wednesday for an obligatory all-hands strategy meeting at a warehouse in Broward County, which has more COVID-19 cases than any other county in Florida.” – Vice 

Using social media influencers to get the brand from small upstart to number three was clearly clever and wildly successful marketing. Unlike Owoc’s forceful personality, the brand wanted influencers to use the products as they liked. Getting the name out there was the thing and it worked.

The success of the brand couldn’t overcome the claims and actions others saw as out of bounds, and ultimately juries and judges.

In 2018 Monster sued Owoc and his company and thought it took time, won.  In September 2022 the culmination of years of lawsuits  - on both sides - of things like false advertising ended with Owoc losing and having judgments totaling hundreds of millions.  

“Energy drink maker Monster Energy Co. was awarded $293 million in damages by a California federal jury in a false advertising and trade secrets case against the maker of Bang Energy and its CEO Jack Owoc over the drink’s “super creatine” branding—with the potential for more to come. 

The jury awarded $272 million for the false advertising claim, $18 million for tortious interference, and $3 million for the trade secret claim, according to Monster’s co-lead trial counsel Moez Kaba of Hueston Hennigan LLP. 

The verdict said that VPX and Owoc’s actions were willful, and Judge Jesus Bernal will decide if they face enhanced and punitive damages, Kaba said. 

VPX has been on the losing side of a number of legal disputes across the country. In July, Monster won $175 million and 5% of VPX’s sales of Bang products in a trademark dispute. 

VPX has also been hit with lawsuits from the three largest record labels for allegedly using unlicensed music in promotional videos posted to the social network TikTok. In two of those cases, judges ruled that VPX was liable for copyright infringement.” Bloomberg

Now look, there were twists and turns in these lawsuits. Owoc actually won some, however as it stands the losses are in his side.  And he’s lost what he created. 

Just yesterday Owoc was made to take down social media posts against his former company by a judge. He still has the Instagram account @Bangenergy.ceo with over a million followers and was posting angry frustrations about the company he no longer runs. He was told he’d be fined $25,000 a day until he took them down.  He deleted the comments but did so in his typical style, including commenting on why he won’t give over passwords.

“He said he has closely guarded his social media accounts because of how important and valuable they are to his personal brand, which he described as the “the Jack Owoc persona.” Bloomberg 

While it’s not clear what Owoc will do in the future, with the company or otherwise.  The Instagram handle he still controls shows a connection he doesn’t want to give up, his care for his life’s work that he built is clear.  Five days ago he posted Bang ads just like he did before his ousting.  He is still rooting for its success even if he hasn’t accepted his new seat in the audience.

What remains though is a beverage industry still controlled by a few behemoths.  Their market share is controlled partly through lawyers funded with deep pockets they fight off competition.  As clearly no other companies have been able to challenge leaders, and recently Bang has lost a few percentage points in market share, dominance continues.

An industry with that much power in a few hands is an issue.  Why and how it continues is with closer examining.  Someone with as much self-love and bravado as Owoc has succeeded in showing an important lesson; one can be right and still be wrong.

Something tells me we will hear more from this man.  Though I’m sure many of us will be skipping the shockumentary.