The Manicou Report

I have a big gripe with Caribbean Bottlers Limited. Huge gripe. Caribbean Bottlers Limited is the company that bottles Coca Cola. My particular gripe isn’t with Coca-Cola or any Coca-Cola product. I have a problem with the current radio ad for an energy drink called Ciclon (Also spelled Ciclón) that Caribbean Bottlers Limited is pushing for Carnival. Here is a transcript of the ad:

(soca music playing in background)
Man 1: I really enjoy myself boy, but yuh see me? I had enough. I going home!
Man 2: Wha? But yuh leaving? Hmm. Yuh know we have to take one for the road? Yes! Drunk or sober, we taking one for the road!
Man 1: I could agree with that, but I taking a Ciclon for the road. I looking for relief from all those spirits I just had.
Man 2: Watch, brodda, I eh having it no other way. A beastly cold Ciclon and yuh on the road!
Both: T&T, this carnival, drink Ciclon, energize yourself and get home safe!

When I first heard this ad I wondered, “are these people really saying what I think they’re saying? Are they saying that drinking Ciclon makes you less drunk or even worse yet, fit to drive?” The message in it was so striking, it brought me online here to see if it’s ever been determined if sports drinks like Red Bull have ever been proven to alleviate the effects of alcohol. Of course it hasn’t. And just for the record, Red Bull and Ciclon have the same active ingredients including caffine, taurine, and I guess about a metric tonne of sugar.

Let me say right of the bat that nowhere in the ad is Caribbean Bottlers Limited saying that Ciclon energy drink is some kind of antidote to alcohol or a drink that helps the user feel less drunk. At least the don’t say that in plain English, but anyone who listens to the ad will understand that that is the intent of their message.

Among college age drinkers in the United States, there is an urban legend that mixing energy drinks and in particular Red Bull, with alcohol “combats the effects of alcohol”. And so may collage-age drinkers tend to mix their alcoholic drinks with Red Bull thinking that they won’t get as drunk. This of course is nowhere near the truth.

They certainly feel less drunk, but their coordination, visual reaction times and breath-alcohol levels do not improve upon drinking alcoholic beverages mixed with energy drinks. Again, Caribbean Bottlers Limited isn’t advocating mixing their drinks with alcohol, but instead consuming them afterwards. I hardly think the effects of drinking a Ciclon and alcohol mix compared to consuming each one after the other could have a great difference in effect.

Not only is there no truth in the belief that mixing energy drinks with Ciclon can make you more sober, but it’s just dangerous. For one, mixing powerful stimulants contained in some energy drinks with depressants in alcohol could cause cardiopulmonary or cardiovascular failures. I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.

Secondly it gives drivers a false sense of sobriety that encourages them to get behind the wheel. A drinker may feel more alert but the alcohol is actually having the same effect on them. They are still just as impaired. Dr. David L. Katz, an associate professor of public health and director of the Prevention Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine, said:

“This is just the combination that might lead to very bad judgments. Feeling less intoxicated and more alert, one might get behind the wheel of a car, but with impaired coordination and reaction time, that decision might spell disaster.”

The combination of energy drinks and alcohol doesn’t reduce the effects of alcohol — it only makes you think it does.

Rersearcher Maria Lucia Souza-Formigoni, PhD, who works in the psychobiology department of Brazil’s Federal University of Sao Paolo did a study to test the alcohol/energy drink Urban Legend. She found that people who consume the mixed drinks are just as impaired as if they drank alcohol alone, but are in denial about it. The 26 men who took part in the study rated themselves much more sober than they actually were. They may have felt that they were more alert and a little more awake, but in reality, their reflexes were not changed whatsoever

And this is the Urban Legend, the lie, that Caribbean Bottlers Limited seems to be selling to us and to drivers. The lie that Ciclon can sober you up. Of course in a court of law, it will be said that never explicitly said this, only surreptitiously. But just look at the words and statements being used and the sentiments being expressed:

“…but I taking a Ciclon for the road. I looking for relief from all those spirits I just had.”

“…A beastly cold Ciclon and yuh on the road!”

“T&T, this carnival, drink Ciclon, energize yourself and get home safe!”

You don’t have to work at Scotland Yard to catch their meaning.

Against the backdrop of all our social problems, all our fatal accidents due to alcohol, in a season that’s prone to overindulgence; against the fact that it’s very difficult for police officers to take impaired drivers off the roads, it really boggles the mind how Caribbean Bottlers Limited could put out such a deceptive and slyly-worded ad such as this that is so incredibly dangerous – a virtual loaded weapon to an unsuspecting and sometimes gullible public. Where’s our Consumer Affairs Division anyway?

How do the people at Caribbean Bottlers Limited sleep at night? You think it’s only the bandits, rapists and drug dealers that have lost their souls? Think again.