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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.