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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.