Maker of Kids’ Caffeine Drink KickStart Spark Defends Itself

The maker of caffeinated sports drinks for kids – called Spark – is using its website to strike back at The New York Times for its story slamming the drink a few days ago. (Thanks Ontario Emporer for the link; I liked your comments about the Amway style of marketing AdvoCare engages in.)

DadTalk also slammed the drinks because they targeted caffeinated drinks at children as young as four. Here is their press release with my comments mixed in:

A recent article in The New York Times (9/25/05) incorrectly claims that the intent of AdvoCare is to market high levels of caffeine to children as a high-performance stimulant – a total misrepresentation of what AdvoCare is all about.

AdvoCare products are first and foremost nutritional supplements, and our goal is to provide safe, balanced and age-appropriate solutions so that adults can make informed decisions based on solid science. AdvoCare Independent Members must be 18 years of age or older and are only permitted to sell to customers who are at least 18 years old.

I love the terminology, “balanced and age-appropriate solutions.” Isn’t giving your kids water and a banana an age-appropriate solution? And I would argue that science is still debating whether vitamin pills are a good idea.

Second, KickStart SPARK™ Smart Energy Drink, the product most in question by the New York Times, has been carefully researched as a safe nutritional drink for children. It contains vitamins and minerals essential for children’s balanced nutrition, especially important given that only about 10 percent of children in the United States get the daily recommended level of nutrition.

It’s good to see a corporation admitting that American children have poor nutrition, but why is it that we try to solve this problem with chemical soup rather than, say a banana? Oops, I’m repeating myself.

As one of five nutritional products in the KickStart line, KickStart SPARK™ Smart Energy Drink is the only one that contains caffeine (60 mg) – at a level far below other common sources of caffeine like coffee (from 85 mg in regular coffee to 200+ mg in specialty coffees) and energy drinks with 80 mg in a single can. Sodas, tea, frozen yogurt, vitamin waters and chocolate products, as well as pain relievers and other over-the-counter medicines, are additional sources of caffeine.

So let’s see, kids don’t get enough vitamins, so they need more caffeine, which by the way is addictive. As AdvoCare points out, there already are too many sources of caffeine in the American diet.

Third, substantial research has been conducted on the effects of caffeine, and numerous sources such as the National Institute of Mental Health have reported that “overall, the effects of caffeine in children seem to be modest and typically innocuous.” For example, one-and-a-half glasses of iced tea or two cans of diet cola contain about 100 mg of caffeine – well above the 60 mg of caffeine in just one pouch of KickStart SPARK™.

I’m sorry, the effects of giving my son even a little caffeine are not innocuous. You need to peel him off the ceiling after just a couple ounces of chocolate, which has a much smaller amount of caffeine than what AdvoCare is talking about here. I also like this ploy: two cans of soda have 100 mg of caffeine. Um, and one can has 50 mg, 10 mg less than a pouch of KickStart.

Fourth, caffeine is not a banned substance by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It is a regulated ingredient, and AdvoCare fully supports such regulations.

If caffeine is regulated, why should we be giving it to kids at all?

Finally, the perception that caffeine “develops a mind-set” among young athletes toward high-performance products is unsubstantiated. The use of caffeine in products is not linked to a future need for performance-enhancing drugs. AdvoCare strongly supports the ban by groups such as the International Olympic Committee of performance-enhancing substances like steroids.

Well, that’s a relief.

Enough said.

Comments

[Philip]

Keep slamming them.

Solid post.

[brettdl]

Thanks Phil. And thanks for all the links from your site and from Spokesman-Review.

[Chris]

Hi There,

I just wanted to comment on a few things. First, AMWAY?? Are you kidding me, you have obviously not done your research on this subject. Advocare is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, like amway. Yes, Advocare markets its products through the direct selling industry, but income is based solely on individual effort and there is no "pyramid" (dude, do some research before you write stuff like this, seriously). Second, have you any idea who formulates these products, let me guess, you don't. Well, let me just say this Advocare has a World Class Scientific and Medical Advisory Board with over 270 years of combined experience in the field (what did you say that your degree was in?) Finally, It's amazing what parents use to try and reflect attention away from their lack of responsibility, "Oh, I cant control my child because he drinks caffeine and eats chocolate", with all do respect, you having to peel your child off the wall has nothing to do with chocolate or caffeine, only their lack of discipline.

[brettdl]

Chris, here’s a rebuttal.

1. The Amway reference is an observation by another blogger. He was offering his opinion based on what he read on the Advocare websites and his personal experiences.

2. I have found that there are plenty of experts out there with educations far surpassing my own who take opposite views on a large variety of issues. Example: Some experts say saturated fats are bad for you while others say it’s good. All of them have PhDs, but who is right?

As layman, I choose to look at the various sides and offer my own opinions, which I have as much right to do in this country as any expert. It does not take an expert to figure out that caffeine is generally not the best choice for young children; but my words here won’t stop those who want to feed this stuff to their kids.

3. Um, in fact, I don’t have trouble controlling my child, nor do most of the people who read this site. We learn by discussing products that undermine parents ability to do their jobs. The key point is this: food and nutritional corporations trying to shove one product after another down our children’s throats via slick marketing does complicate parenting.

And get off it Chris, most corporations put profit before people’s health and welfare. Putting addictive chemicals in a drink directed at young children is clearly motivated at hooking customers. Just ask the experts.

[Chris Keen]

Your absolutley right, MOST corporations do put profit before people's health and well being, but Advocare doesn't. And the only way that you wouldn't know that is if you haven't looked at the company. That's all I'm asking, just look into the company, talk to someone who has been on the products, find out what they're doing for thousands and thousands of people. I will tell you that they are changing lives, they changed mine. Finally, if Advocare is doing anything for parenting they're helping turn it into what it's really suppose to be about, TIME. They're doing this by offering a chance for parents to build a part time, home-based, business so that they CAN be a part of their kids lives, which is something that corporate america has never offered and never will. Oh, and i'm pretty sure that it's impossible for any company to "shove it's product down the throat" of any child, especially since they're not allowed to sell anything to anyone under the age of 18.

[chip]

you having to peel your child off the wall has nothing to do with chocolate or caffeine, only their lack of discipline.

These can only be the words of someone who either doesn't have kids or never spent much time with them when they were little!! Keep fighting the good fight Brett!

[brettdl]

Chris: Maybe the company is great on all other levels, but marketing caffeinated drinks to 4-year-olds is simply a bad idea and unfair to parents who must constantly beat off the barage of products thrust at our children.

As to time, it is a big deal, but I place a premium on making sure my children eat whole, natural foods and drink water or unadulterated tea. We stay away from virtually all processed products. It means schlepping to the farmer's market and the best grocery stores we can find -- and afford -- but it's worth it.

Chip: As always, thanks!

[Chris Keen]

Brett,

AdvoCare does not market anything to 4 yr. olds, but it does market good nutrition for children to their parents. Somebody has to.

[Jake]

Chris, marketing "to" and marketing "for" 4 year olds is a fine, and nearly pointless distinction.

More and more kids as young as two are asking for their own products thanks to marketing efforts (I recently worked for a kids product company for 5 years).

Now, I'm all for parental responsibility. I think anyone who knowingly buys an "energy drink" for kids (who are, by definition, "energy" by nature) should be lashed behind the woodshed. Brett's efforts to keep things natural should be applauded and I hope (and expect) that I have the same willpower with my pending child (due in November).

That said, this company is taking clearly underhanded marketing tactics to play on the fact that people aren't as educated as they should be. By marching out their "experts" and "nutritional facts", they're playing off the inherent effect of so many experts and so much conflicting media about what is or is not good for you.

This is devious, underhanded marketing, to be sure. Don't kid yourself in saying "they have experts!" or that "they're here to give time back to the parents". That's a clueless pile of happy-go-lucky bullshit and simply isn't true. They are a corporation and perhaps they think they're doing something good, but they're not. They're there for profits first and foremost (which CAN come from honest, positive interaction with consumers and stellar products.... neither or which exist here)

[brettdl]

Wow, thanks Jake. You get right to the heart of the matter.

[jesse]

Wow, Jake, your comments speak of nothing but total ignorance of AdvoCare. Who's basing their opinions on the "experts" and the "media"? Nobody listens to the media anymore, unless they like what they hear. About caffeine being addictive, it's not, at least in commonly consumed amounts, and I can prove it. Take someone addicted to coffee, and give them soda. Won't do it for them. And vice versa. The reason is because caffeine simply speeds the delivery of whatever else is with it. So what else is with it? In coffee, botanic acid. In soda, phosphoric acid. Plus all the sugar. That's what they get addicted to, and you can prove it too if you want to. The reason I researched it is because I became allergic to coffee, it gave me high fevers, but Spark doesn't bother me, in fact at helps a lot. But since you obviously haven't tried it, I can undertand why you wouldn't know. Thanks for listening! :-)

[shari]

My son is 8 years old and has ADD and I can tell you it was a complete turn around for him when started the spark. He could focus alot better. I would just like to add that I took the spark packet to his doctor and she herself said that the caffine level was good and that there has been research that caffine has an opposite effect on children. It does not wire your child up.