Brands Give Back Roundup: Liquid Death Supports Bands and Bartenders, Ocean Spray Announces Raises

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt daily life, food and beverage brands are continuing to launch new initiatives to give back and support those in need during the crisis. In this roundup, we look at several brands finding new ways to support musicians, food pantries and their own employees.

Liquid Death Gives Bands, Bartenders a Lifeline

Canned water brand Liquid Death was in part born from the heavy metal and hardcore music scenes that inspired its tongue-in-cheek branding. Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered venues and clubs nationwide, the brand is looking to support touring musicians who are out of income through a profit-sharing program aptly named Death Peddlers United.

According to Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario, bands can apply at the company’s website and, once approved, will receive a discount coupon code to share with their fans on social media. All proceeds from purchases made through those links will be split 50/50 with the bands.

Cessario noted that the company has kept the initiative relatively lowkey, preferring to work directly with bands and let word of the promotion spread through word of mouth, rather than broadcast the message to consumers and risk seeming opportunistic. So far, roughly 100 performers have signed up for the program, though Cessario notes the company carefully screens each applicant to be sure that each band fits the image and ethics of the company.

Once accepted, Liquid Death works with the bands to help optimize their messaging — suggestions include having every individual member share the link on their social media accounts rather than only using official band channels — but they are also given creative freedom to tailor the promotion as they see fit.

Where Liquid Death is looking to draw in consumers, however, is in its Belch for Bars campaign, which promises to donate $20 to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) relief fund for out of work bartenders for each video posted by consumers showing them drinking Liquid Death’s sparkling water line and then belching. According to Cessario, the Belch for Bars campaign began as an idea for a marketing campaign tied to the launch of its sparkling line earlier this year. However, as bars and restaurants began closing, Liquid Death opted to adapt the promotion into a charitable cause.

Cessario said the Belch for Bars campaign has been slow to start, possibly by timidness among consumers to post videos of them burping. However, the company will still aim to donate at least $100,000 to the USBG, though he said the final total is to be determined.

“We’re going to let things play out a bit longer, because it is starting to kind of ramp up a little bit,” he said. “Our delivery times are a little slower right now, so when we launched the video people were just ordering the sparkling and they might not get it for a week or more. So we’re starting to see a little bit more posting happening, especially as people see others doing it.”

Ocean Spray Raises Wages for 1,500 Operations Employees

Massachusetts-based cranberry producer Ocean Spray announced this week it will give over 1,500 operational employees a wage increase of $1.50 per hour (about $100 per week) for hourly workers and an extra week of vacation time for salaried workers as the farming cooperative faces increased demands during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Ocean Spray is committed to providing nourishment worldwide as we come together to face the COVID-19 outbreak,” said COO Brian Schiegg in an email. “This increase will continue to be assessed in real time given the fluidity of the pandemic situation. We, and all our farmer-owners, are profoundly grateful to our colleagues on the front line whose work is heroic and essential.”

Additionally, the co-op has also announced an initiative to donate 100,000 meals to those in need through Feeding America, the Second Harvest, Northwest Harvest and the Boston Resiliency Fund.

Schiegg noted that the initiative was driven in particular by the lack of access to breakfast and lunch for many children impacted by school closures.

“Hundreds of thousands of families in our communities depend on the temporarily-closed school systems and other local systems to feed their families, and Ocean Spray is doing our part to help ensure no family goes hungry during this time,” he said.

Pathwater Pledges 100,000 Bottles to Bay Area Food Pantries

Reusable bottled water brand Pathwater announced this week that it will donate at least 100,000 units to San Francisco Bay Area food pantries.

Co-founder and CMO Ali Orabi said the donation came from a sense of duty to give back and support his local community, noting both his own “humble beginnings” and reports of food pantries being overburdened during the COVID-19 crisis.

“We have to stick together, we have to show our support,” Orabi said. “Despite the fact that we’re running a business we feel we need to help out and be involved as much as possible.”

Orabi noted that Pathwater saw a 250% spike in sales last month as consumers are stockpile pantry staples, but he said that the rush on grocery stores has also hurt food pantries as they struggle to remain stocked. So far, Orabi estimates the company has donated about 84,000 bottles, but will likely continue to donate after reaching its goal of 100,000.

“We’ve been to downtown San Francisco and it’s madness,” he said. “People are hungry, they’re thirsty and food banks are short-handed. They’re short on products and we’ve seen it and we have recordings of it. I’m just wondering why there aren’t a lot more people involved in this?”

Other Good News From Around the Industry:

  • Starbucks announced the Starbucks Global Partner Emergency Relief Program as part of its $10 million commitment to support its worldwide employees impacted by COVID-19.

 

  • Steeped Coffee has announced a “You Give, We Give” campaign, encouraging consumers to purchase product as gifts for frontline hospital and emergency workers. The company will match all purchases one-for-one.

 

  • Milo’s Tea Company will donate up to 2,000 gallons of its tea and lemonade to first responders fighting the coronavirus. The program is available for firefighters, police, National Guard, FEMA, paramedics, doctors, nurses, and hospital and nursing home staff until April 30.

 

  • CBD-infused sparkling beverage brand G&Juice has donated 4,500 face masks to Kaiser Medical Center in Los Angeles.

 

  • CELSIUS has launched a giveback initiative to deliver product to firehouses and hospitals in South Florida. The company is also giving out free cases of drinks to first responders and healthcare workers that send the company a picture of their ID through direct message on social media.

 

  • JuneShine Hard Kombucha will donate $1 from every online order to the United States Bartenders Guild Emergency Assistance Program to help service industry workers.

 

  • BOMANI will also donate 5.7% of its net proceeds to the USBG Emergency Assistance Program.

 

  • BioSteel Sports Nutrition Inc. has pledged to donate up to $2 million worth of its hydration mix to front-line workers, hospitals and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

  • Evian has pledged to donate up to 195,000 bottles of water to New Yorkers during the crisis.

 

  • HFactor has donated over 5,000 pouches of water to be delivered to the 40 EMS stations throughout New York City.