Creating a sales monster | energy, monster, dew - The Orange ...

Remember Mountain Dew's "Do the Dew" ads, filled with soaring BMX bikes and flipping skateboards? Those seem a relic from a quainter, less-caffeinated time. A decade ago, young people drank soda in mass quantities (a 12-ounce Dew has about 50 mg of caffeine), and about a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds drank coffee. Today, 39 percent do, according to the research firm NPD Group.

If Starbucks electrified the caffeine habit with its rapid expansion in the 1990s, energy drinks sent the trend into overdrive. Red Bull was introduced in the United States in 1997 and now accounts for 40 percent of the energy-drink market, with about 4 billion cans sold worldwide each year.

PFC Marco Del Rosario drinks a Monster Energy donated for a car-wash fund-raiser by Monster in Irvine.

PHOTO BY CHAS METIVIER, FOR THE REGISTER

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Monster Beverage, the Corona-based company known mainly as a purveyor of caffeine-free sodas when it was called Hansen's Natural, is working hard to close Red Bull's coolness gap. Monster's green "claw" logo has found a home on countless pickups. On Saturday, there's an event perfectly tailored for the company's demographic: The Monster Energy Supercross series visits Angel Stadium. Don't expect much Diet Pepsi to be chugged.

Yet adults are becoming enamored of the supercharged beverages, too, sometimes to their detriment. According to a survey by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of emergency-room visits related to energy-drink consumption shot from 10,068 to 20,783 between 2007 and 2011. The largest increase among any age group was the over-40 crowd: up 279 percent, from 1,382 to 5,233.

"I don't think it's something we anticipated," said Al Woodward, senior statistical analyst with the agency. He acknowledged that a drawback of the report is that it did not contain details about the health of the patients. But "it does point out a trend that is a cause for concern."

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Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/energy-413989-monster-dew.html

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