As a famous prestige television character once said, you come at the King, you best not miss. When it comes to marketing ploys, thought, it’s much harder to deem what a “miss” is or isn’t.
In this case, Liquid Death, a popular canned water brand whose tagline is “murder your thirst,” came at THE King of golf, Arnold Palmer, which naturally outraged Golf Twitter.
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All-time move from Liquid Death just dropped
– Company releases iced tea/lemonade drink named "Armless Palmer"
– Arnold Palmer's estate threatens to sue Liquid Death over the name
– Liquid Death rebrands the drink to "Dead Billionaire" pic.twitter.com/SjFb7sp6j6
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) November 27, 2023
As this quick synopsis shows, Liquid Death released new iced tea/lemonade drink, also known as an “Arnold Palmer” by a large portion of a America, and called it “Armless Palmer.” To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Arnold Palmer estate promptly threatened to sue. Liquid Death then pretended to be shocked by this threat in a fiery Instagram caption, where the brand also revealed it would be changing the name to “Dead Billionaire,” which the most unbiased of arbiters would say is in poor taste.
“If you like our Armless Palmer tea/lemonade, then you are going to LOVE our new Dead Billionaire tea/lemonade,” Liquid Death wrote. “Why? Because it’s the EXACT same thing, only now it has a way cooler name that won’t require us to fight a senseless legal battle with a large enterprise who sent us a letter saying we can’t use the word ‘Palmer’ and who are also partnered with a giant iced tea corporation. Both of whom have far more $$$ to burn on legal fees than we do.”
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Much to unpack here. First, we get it, Liquid Death, you’re edgy and cool. Second, they came up with the “Armless Palmer” name, which is good (!), likely knew it would stir something like this up, and are now turning around and saying “well, actually, this name is WAY cooler.” Gotcha.
And finally, while they are right that the Arnold Palmer estate and Arizona Iced Tea have a ton of money to blow, it’s hilarious to be crying poor when your brand was valued at $700 million in October of 2022. Not exactly a little mom and pop shop. All that being said, it IS a genius marketing play, as evidenced by the endless outrage from the always-outraged folks on Golf Twitter:
What a wild move. And bad look
— Jared Doerfler (@DoerflerJared) November 27, 2023
It’s a legit marketing play but it’s also pretty heartless to a legends family.
1.) they own the name I can’t call my new phone an iPhone
2.) “sue” is probably being tossed around, I bet they got a C&D
3.) tasteless gen z marketing tactics don’t build long term relationships.— Brett and Butter (@BrettandButter) November 27, 2023
By all accounts, Arnold Palmer was one of the most humble and philanthropic star athletes ever. His estate is protective of the brand because @DrinkAriZona holds the distribution rights and sells their product for an affordable 99 cents.
Not the flex Liquid Death thinks this is https://t.co/NBMZ7n0w3H
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) November 27, 2023
What a disgusting company. @LiquidDeath – I had the honor to work with Arnold Palmer and his family. He was a great American and class act. This is classless. https://t.co/19d19XQqpE
— Mike Ryan (@mryan311) November 28, 2023
Icky. https://t.co/3ARaragIQD
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) November 28, 2023
And that’s just a small sampling. Again, as all the brilliant reply guys will tell you, it’s a galaxy brain marketing move. It’s gets the people talking. It riles up folks who have never even heard of Liquid Death and now know of its existence. Yada, yada, yada. It’s OK to point out that it seems a little weird and gross, though, whether you are a golf fan or not.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
