Horse 548 - Coca-Cola Emo

If you look down the field of quite a few motor sports like the DTM and F1 you'll find the familiar silver and blue paint scheme of Austrian "energy" drink menufacturer Red Bull. The highly caffinated drink once the domain of sleepless uni students and nightclub goers crossed into the sporting realm much to the chargrin of soft-drink giant Coca-Cola.

Now it appears that Coca-Cola has launched an "energy" drink of its own which contains the same percentage of caffeine as rival Red Bull. Called Relentless, it has 32mg of caffeine per 100ml and comes in 500ml cans.

The product has caused concern among some retailers in the UK because of its caffeine content and large can size, according to a report in trade magazine Marketing Week. Red Bull's "slim" cans contain 250ml of liquid - half as much as the new Coca-Cola product. Relentless is made with sugar, caffeine, taurine, guarana, glucoronolactone, and B vitamins which is pretty well much the same as Red Bull.

The brand's image was said to have inspired by action sport and modern punk rock. The new energy drink goes is priced at £1.09 for a 500ml can or A$2.47 and already has found a niche in the "emo" market.

Coca-Cola in Australia does have plans to market it but I wonder whether they realise that they already have their own emo drink? Coca-Cola Zero comes in a black can and fom what I've seen first hand has already been taken up by "emo kids" and goths.

Or perhaps as a friend of mine said, the best thing that Coca-Cola could do if they really wanted to capture the emo market would be to market a drink that tastes vaguely like smoke and apple juice. How emo would that be?