About

G Fuel is a caffeinated energy drink mix created and manufactured by Gamma Labs. The company primarily markets the product towards gamers as an energy supplement that increases focus and reaction time without the crash of traditional, canned energy drinks.

History

In 2012, Gamma Labs developed G Fuel.^[1] The following year, on July 9th, 2013, the company published "What is G Fuel?" on YouTube. The video received more than 860,000 views in less than seven years (shown below).

That month, they published a video with one of their earliest endorsements, MMA fighter Doug Marshall. On July 17th, they published the video "Doug Marshall vs Watermelons" (shown below, left).

On September 29th, 2014, G Fuel published a video entitled "UFC vs FaZe Clan | Trampoline Battle." The video is their first to feature eSports celebrities, in this case, FaZe Clan (shown below, right).

On September 21st, 2018, the company published an advertisement featuring Twitch streamer Dr. Disrespect. The post received more than 1 million views in less than two years (shown below).

Criticism

Health Concerns

On February 3rd, 2017, ABC^[2] published the article "G Fuel energy drinks big for teen gamers, but are they safe?" In the piece, they asked a doctor about the effects of energy drinks on teenagers, particularly the 150 milligrams of caffeine found in a serving of G Fuel. According to the report, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that energy drinks "should never be consumed by children or adolescents."

Two years later, a 10-year-old boy was hospitalized after drinking G Fuel. The boy's mother told CBS^[3] that the boy was disoriented and vomiting after consuming G Fuel on a bus. He was told the drink was Kool-Aid.

A representative for the company said that they were "horrified" by the story and that the drink was marketing to customers over 18 years old.

Controversies

Keemstar Sponsorship

On May 19th, YouTuber h3h3 Productions posted a video titled Content Nuke in which he criticized YouTuber Keemstar, who G Fuel sponsored at this point, accusing Keemstar of a variety of misdeeds, including saying that he couldn't wait to report on YouTuber TotalBiscuit's death, doxxing several YouTubers and pushing late YouTuber Etika during his extended mental health struggles and inadvertently contributing to his eventual suicide. The video received more than 4.7 million views in less than one week (shown below).

Following the release of the video, which frequently mentions Keemstar's sponsorship by G Fuel, the company removed Keemstar's G Fuel flavor and shaker from their website. Keemstar claims that he "walked away" from the sponsorship.^[4]

Search Interest

External References