"Building and Managing Strong Brands" Content Updates (Rajeev Batra)

Chapter 8 of the Book has a Case about Liquid Death and its strategy of coming up with timely events and stunts that get high WOM and often go viral. Here is another classroom-worthy example that it just came up with (August 18, 2026), reproduced from https://www.marketingdive.com/news/liquid-death-and-garage-beer-take-on-ai-data-centers-with-pee/827879 , written by Chris Kelly. [Note: Chapter 1 of the Book discusses Jason Kelce and his ‘Garage Beer’ brand in the section on personal branding.]

“A new battlefront has opened up in the war around artificial intelligence: Where will the massive data centers be built that are needed to run AI? A new collaboration between Liquid Death and Garage Beer seeks to address the need for data centers to consume up to 5 million gallons of water a day to cool their servers – albeit with marketing that employs a crude sense of humor.

AI technology has already been in the crosshairs for how it affects the spread of misinformation, alters the workforce and reshapes industries like advertising. For a majority of Americans, the question of where to build data centers is also a hot topic, and one many would answer: “Not in my backyard.” More than seven in 10 people opposed constructing AI data centers in their area, with nearly half strongly opposed, according to a Gallup poll.

Tapping into that opposition, Liquid Death and Garage Beer on Tuesday released a music video that opens with NFL legend and Garage Beer co-owner Jason Kelce relieving himself into a jar as he explains the AI data center cooling issue. In the 90-second clip (available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/r9OhekhlZ9Y ), Kelce then walks outside and is joined by Liquid Death’s Murder Man mascot and dozens of characters who carry containers of pee and sing a song with the chorus, “We want your pee, please give us your pee, let’s pee on computers, together, to save humanity.”

The video also promotes a “Coolant Collector” product and encourages consumers to send their pee to an AI data center of their choice. It will run, with paid support, on the brand’s social channels and on connected TV.”