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Halloween is here. How appropriate. Could the world be any scarier? Ghosts, Goblins, and Four Lokos roam the streets...
With all the crazy parties in the life of a college kid, what has really got the media's attention is the Four Loko beverage. The alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko, is sweeping college campus's. Yes, it is cheap and definitely gets you drunk, but we are now seeing that it can cause heart failures and parties gone wrong. Twenty-four students were hospitalized in New Jersey. (CBS News) Nine freshmen girls in central Washington got sent to the ER. Attackers in a brutal anti-gay gang crime in the Bronx reportedly forced a victim to down 10 cans of the stuff. A student accidentally shoots himself after drinking three cans. An 18-year-old girl, dies after drinking Four Loko with diet pills (The New York Times). And a naked intruder, who passed out on a woman’s couch in Florida, said the last thing he remembered was drinking one.
This alcoholic energy drink is intentionally designed to boost up your energy and get you that head rush. However, the intentional, but very subtle and indirect informational design of these beverages are taking it to problematic effects. "College is the fountain of knowledge and the students come here to drink." So while people have been talking about the negative aspects of the drink, they have failed to notice how cool it looks, which is why it is sending teens straight to the liquor stores to purchase these fun looking, "black out in a can" drinks.
This alcoholic energy drink is intentionally designed to boost up your energy and get you that head rush. However, the intentional, but very subtle and indirect informational design of these beverages are taking it to problematic effects. "College is the fountain of knowledge and the students come here to drink." So while people have been talking about the negative aspects of the drink, they have failed to notice how cool it looks, which is why it is sending teens straight to the liquor stores to purchase these fun looking, "black out in a can" drinks.
Looking at the visual representation of Four Loko, it stands out, it’s bright and colorful. So why wouldn't it be good? The can design alone makes it difficult to identify it as an alcoholic beverage. The marketing team succeeds in reaching to its target market of teens and college kids worldwide with their advertisements and more significantly, they actual logo and informative design. Four Loko's visual literacy of the contents proves how the informational design is so vital to a product. For Four Loko specifically, standard drink labeling would greatly help the issue. Each Four Loko contains about 5 standard drinks, for example. So a person drinking two is drinking 10 drinks. Even a simple "5 Standard" kind of label would do a lot more for a consumer's understanding of how much they are drinking than the current Alcoholic Beverage Volume. With the current ABV, a person has to do a lot of math to get to the bottom line on how many drinks are in this can? And by the time they figure it out, they’ve probably already reached their “blackout phase” in the can.
All thanks to the can’s ultimate design, this drink neglects to inform the consumer of the impact this drink can have on the drinker considering how strong it is.
It clearly states on the can in very bold contrasting colors “We ID”, “12% Alcohol”, and “Contains Alcohol”. Sure, as consumers we clearly understand that this product contains alcohol, but we are not aware of how powerful and intense this product really is. Almost every major alcohol company has their fun fruity drinks like the hard lemonades, coconut pineapple, fruity ice coolers, etc. Drinks like this have been around and where nightlife cocktails of vodka + energy drink is so popular.
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All thanks to the can’s ultimate design, this drink neglects to inform the consumer of the impact this drink can have on the drinker considering how strong it is.
It clearly states on the can in very bold contrasting colors “We ID”, “12% Alcohol”, and “Contains Alcohol”. Sure, as consumers we clearly understand that this product contains alcohol, but we are not aware of how powerful and intense this product really is. Almost every major alcohol company has their fun fruity drinks like the hard lemonades, coconut pineapple, fruity ice coolers, etc. Drinks like this have been around and where nightlife cocktails of vodka + energy drink is so popular.
This company definitely jumped on the band wagon and put out a trendy product, which is totally reasonable. But what Four Loko has failed to do is explain the vast amount of alcohol this beverage contains. I understand that they have 12% alcohol stamped on it, but to an uneducated drinker this means nothing. “The average beer has around 4.5% alcohol and comes in 12 ounces. The Four Loko is 12% alcohol and comes in a 24 ounce can. Drinking one Four Loko is equivalent to drinking a six pack of beer.” With such faulty informational design, its no wonder Four Loko has got drinkers going Loko, and waking up, wondering what happened last night?
Scary, indeed. This sounds like a job for a real designer, although the territory risks being as drunken and smoky as a season of Mad Men. Keep fighting for the truth, J Lev!
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