Liquid Death launches iced tea line with 'Jackass'-style, heavy-metal grandmas

Liquid Death is expanding its product offering beyond water for the first time, unveiling a line of iced tea—with flavors such as Grim Leafer, Armless Palmer and Rest In Peach—backed by a raucous new commercial directed by “Jackass” co-founder Jeff Tremaine. The 80-second, in-house spot is amusingly unhinged, as men dressed as grandmothers play heavy-metal music, shoot bottle rockets out of their butts and spray poop on a hater from a hose connected to a portable toilet. The message: This isn’t your grandma’s iced tea. Liquid Death has had a bit of a “Jackass” vibe from the beginning, pushing the envelope with provocative stunts. The brand previously partnered with Steve-O, one of the O.G. “Jackass” stars who got a “water tattoo” in a video last year. The underlying concept for the iced tea campaign—that tea is the original energy drink for grandmas, and could be promoted with the tropes of all extreme energy drinks—felt like a good project for Tremaine, who signed with Pulse Films at the end of last year for commercial representation. In chatting early on about the idea, Steve-O put the brand in touch with Tony Gardner, a special effects, makeup and prosthetics wizard. “He designed the original Chucky Doll, the Daft Punk helmets, and did work on Jackass and Bad Grandpa,” Liquid Death's VP of creative, Andy Pearson, told Ad Age. “Since we had him on board, we figured it made sense to reach out to Jeff Tremaine and get the band back together. We’re obviously huge fans of 'Jackass' and everything else Jeff does, so we were excited when we said he would join in, too.” The hard-driving musical track is an original. In fact, it comes from another previous Liquid Death project—its Greatest Hates Vol. 1 album, the heavy-metal record that Liquid Death made in 2020, with all the lyrics sourced from hate mail sent to the brand. The song is called “Go Out Of Business.” “We’ve always gotten a lot of comments about how quickly people think we’ll go out of business,” said Pearson. “Considering we released this song in 2020, and we’re using it to launch an entirely new category of products, those comments haven’t aged well.” All the grandmas in the spot are either Liquid Death employees or friends of the brand. One of them is Mike Cessario, the brand’s founder and CEO. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “It was a funny and inexpensive way to get talent. Plus, with Mike’s background in skating and metal bands, it made sense for him to play one of the grandmas,” Pearson said. “That granny hanging out the car window? That’s our VP of marketing, Greg Fass. He showed up to set that morning and asked what he was going to be doing, and we just pointed to the car.” Another fun fact: Cessario also appeared in Liquid Death’s first-ever commercial, “Deadliest Stuff on Earth.” He’s the one getting waterboarded. The new product will be sold on Amazon at first—$2.69 for a single can (19.2-ounce tallboys) or $16.99 for 8-pack case. Sweetened with agave nectar, it’s low-calorie, low-sugar, and contains B vitamins and a microdose of caffeine. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here

Liquid Death launches iced tea line with 'Jackass'-style, heavy-metal grandmas

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