The maker of Sparks, a popular alcoholic energy drink, has agreed to reformulate the beverages and stop making similar caffeinated drinks, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler announced Thursday.
MillerCoors LLC also agreed to change the marketing and labeling that appeal to underage youth, Gansler said.
Recommended Stories
“It’s a huge win,” Gansler said in an interview, calling alcohol and caffeine a “dangerous combination.”
The company reached the agreement with 14 attorneys general including Gansler, whose office began an investigation into false and misleading health statements about the energizing effects of Sparks and allegations that it was being marketed to youth.
Manufacturers will remove caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng from the product, but they will continue to sell the reformulated Sparks.
In May, Gansler announced that Anheuser-Busch would stop making alcoholic energy drinks including Bud Extra and Tilt.
“With this announcement today, 85 percent of these products on the market will now be gone,” Gansler said.
Gansler said the manufacturers were riding the popularity of energy drinks such as Amp and Red Bull, using similarly bright colors and power-themed marketing. The bright silver and orange Sparks can had plus and minus symbols on it that the company has agreed to remove.
MillerCoors officials “strongly disagree” with the position that Sparks is marketed to youth.
“The Sparks brand has been responsibly marketed only to legal drinking age consumers,” Tom Long, MillerCoors’ president and chief commercial officer.
Michael Gimbel, who educates youth about the effects of performance enhancers, including caffeinated energy drinks, called the move “an important step” to getting the alcohol energy drinks out of the hands of young people.
“One of the things we have always asked the liquor industry was to market their products responsibly,” he said.
Gimbel, director of Powered by ME!, an anti-steroid awareness campaign out of St. Joseph Medical Center, said that with Sparks, MillerCoors was trying to compete with the popularity of Red Bull, an energy drink often mixed with vodka and popular among young people.
However, mixing alcohol and caffeine can be dangerous, he said. Drinking caffeine while intoxicated can make a person feel less drunk and inclined to engage in risky behavior.
“They think they are sober enough to drink more alcohol or to drive,” Gimbel said. “They have a false sense of alertness.”
