Possesed Marketing

June 9, 2009 1:18 PM

In other energy drink news, the makers of Samedi have decided that the best way to market a drink named after a famous Vaudou spirit was to let him have his input in the marketing campaign.

Presently, the drink seems to be available only in Australia, although a New Orleans priestess was given a can [NSFW].

posted by Burhanistan (47 comments total)

Samedi is also the word for Saturday in French. I didn't make the Vaudou association at all.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:21 PM on June 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

These are cola nuts...

(Geoffrey Holder, the awesome Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die)
posted by kuujjuarapik at 1:30 PM on June 9, 2009

A Christian blogger's ethical concerns with consuming the stuff. (note the weird stuffed Jesus).
posted by Burhanistan at 1:31 PM on June 9, 2009

7-Up guy as the Baron in the Bond movie.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:33 PM on June 9, 2009

I love (and by "love" here I mean "scorn") that Christian blogger, who doesn't seem to notice at all that this is disrespectful to people who believe in Voudoun. I wonder what he'd think about Jesus Soda?
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:37 PM on June 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

I wonder what he'd think about Jesus Soda?

You mean, this?
posted by hippybear at 1:39 PM on June 9, 2009

this is disrespectful to people who believe in Voudoun.

Honestly, I don't get the sense that this is terribly disrespectful to Voudou practitioners. They all seemed to enjoy it. There's a lot that could be said about the choices and whims of people who voluntarily submit to what amounts to hypnotic suggestion in modern parlance, but I'll respect the quaint notions of cultural relativism that MeFi seems to champion.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:41 PM on June 9, 2009

I wonder what he'd think about Jesus Soda?

I think Blood of Christ Energy Drink would do real well with a certain market segment.
posted by doctor_negative at 1:42 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

You mean, this?

Hee! Different Jesus, though. The Samedi drink explicitly refers to the Voudoun spirit. I'm talking "NOW WITH TWICE THE RESURRECTION POWER!" kind of marketing.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:42 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Well, as a follower of Abraham and a lover of Isa, I'd just say "bismillah" and chug a can of Samedi if there was any around in my town.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:43 PM on June 9, 2009

Baron Samedi... is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He... often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.

Doesn't seem like a bad choice to market your energy drink.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:44 PM on June 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

Honestly, I don't get the sense that this is terribly disrespectful to Voudou practitioners. They all seemed to enjoy it.

By "they all" here, you mean "the people in the YouTube films posted by the makers of the Samedi drink?" I would hardly think that's a representative sample.

I'm not all OUTRAGE! about that, I just thought it was silly for that blogger to be all worried about what his invisible friend might think and not notice that this was someone else's invisible friend being used as a marketing tool.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:45 PM on June 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

You know, when I was young my heart was like an open book. I was all "live and let live". (You know I did). But in this ever-changing world in which we live in I found I've had to give in. I cry. I say: live and let die.
posted by GuyZero at 1:48 PM on June 9, 2009 [5 favorites]

Really, the relationship between the orishas and practitioners is vastly different than between Jesus and his followers. The use of it as a marketing tool is, granted, a bit odd, but my own encounters with their form of worship, the dieties are much more down and dirty than Jesus, in SO many ways... The kind of petulance they can be known for, and the need to be placated regularly through sacrifice... the way the gods interact with mortals... it's very hard to say, I think, "this would cheapen me if it were about my god, so it must cheapen them."

I think Jesus would "be offended" if you were to blow cigar smoke and spit rum all over his statue. The Voudoun gods sort of require it.
posted by hippybear at 1:50 PM on June 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

I don't really like the chicken blood or tobacco flavors, but Rum Samedi sounds pretty good.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:50 PM on June 9, 2009

Now all the lwa are going to need drinks. An alcopop for Erzulie Frieda, for example.
posted by subbes at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2009

he Clemenger BBDO team looking after the launch traveled to the cemeteries and swamps of New Orleans to connect with Baron Samedi himself to ask him for advice on how to promote the sense of ‘awakening’ associated with the new drink.... The New Orleans trip yielded a 30-minute documentary advertisement that will premier on MTV on 30 November.

Pepsi Resurrection?
posted by filthy light thief at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2009

Yes, that’s right, George A. Romero didn’t invent zombies. It’s got deep roots in Haitian pagan religion.

And deeper roots in Jewish carpentry.
posted by rokusan at 2:04 PM on June 9, 2009 [4 favorites]

I forgot to mention that this was also in the Projects, but that site seems to be down. If anyone has a link to the full 30 minute docu-vertisment, please post here.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:14 PM on June 9, 2009

And deeper roots in Jewish carpentry.

Are walking golems here or ZOMBIE JESUS? Because both are cool although only one made the Monster Manual.
posted by GuyZero at 2:20 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Yes, that’s right, George A. Romero didn’t invent zombies. It’s got deep roots in Haitian pagan religion.

And deeper roots in Jewish carpentry.

For clarification, that's 3 types of zombies:
Jesus' pals: back to their old selves and good as new.
Haitian slaves: not always dead, but usually pretty good at menial labor.
Romero's children: inescapable swarm of your ultimate demise, or you get bitten and you join them.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on June 9, 2009

Magic people, voodoo people. The voodoo, who-do-what-you-don't-dare-do people. Voodoo!
posted by Artw at 2:27 PM on June 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

Haitian slaves: not always dead, but usually pretty good at menial labor.

Wade Davis' "The Serpent and The Rainbow" is a fascinating look at Haitian spirit cutlure. The movie that is very loosely based upon is a joke (come on, Wes Craven, did you really need that last scary scene?), but the book is a solid and rich ethnography.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:29 PM on June 9, 2009

He'll show you the grave
Of someone who was saved
From living their life in a year
(Baron Saturday, by The Pretty Things, 1968)
posted by Greg Nog at 2:31 PM on June 9, 2009

Zombie Jesus was precluded by Zombie Lazarus and the zombies of God's wrath. Golems are just mud-dudes, not re-animated corpses.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:38 PM on June 9, 2009

Burhanistan - So it's basically the Gangs of new York of Haiti?
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on June 9, 2009

So it's basically the Gangs of new York of Haiti?

Yes, Boss Tweed can be "Baby Doc" and Bill the Butcher can be the secret police captain that came back from hell to tackle Bill Pullman/Leo DiCaprio in one last flail before getting sucked down to hell.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:45 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

So I can get halitosis at the same time I learn Thanatosis? Badass. oWoD represent, yo!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:54 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Tried it. It tastes very, very ... purple. Like those purple jubes, or purple jellybeans. I'll stick to sugar-free Red Bull, or black V.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 3:11 PM on June 9, 2009

I love (and by "love" here I mean "scorn") that Christian blogger, who doesn't seem to notice at all that this is disrespectful to people who believe in Voudoun. I wonder what he'd think about Jesus Soda?

Yeah. It wouldn't be like a Christian to be disrespectful of another's religion.
posted by notreally at 3:32 PM on June 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

I hope they made ebo... because in the end, he will come collect.
posted by yeloson at 4:00 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Baron Samedi... is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He... often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.

Doesn't seem like a bad choice to market your energy drink.

Wife: "That sounds like Bender Energy Drink!"
posted by explosion at 4:09 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh dear, Samedi is running around. Someone tell 3Jane.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 4:34 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Is vaudou the hip way to spell voodoo?
posted by jayder at 4:35 PM on June 9, 2009

If the Baron has a problem with the drink, I imagine he'll make his presence and disapproval known. Just as if someone made "Blood of Christ X-Treme Energy Potion" I'm quite sure a heavenly host would descend to make it clear that it was a no-no.
posted by jtron at 4:37 PM on June 9, 2009

This is basically an EC Comic waiting to happen...
posted by Artw at 4:39 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Vaudou is the Haitian and/or French way to say it.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:39 PM on June 9, 2009

HAHaha HaHa ha haha...

I will take you too him.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 4:46 PM on June 9, 2009

Baron Samedi... is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He... often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.

Well, that definitely puts him at the top of the list of deities I'd like to hang out with. He sounds like a lot more fun than YHVH, whose idea of fun is making his adherents suffer horribly to prove a point to Satan, or Buddha, whose idea of a good time is sitting under a tree and starving. Shiva would be cool though, what with the ganja and all.
posted by DecemberBoy at 4:52 PM on June 9, 2009

Huh.

Okay, their campaign has just worked on me.

If I ever see it stocked someplace, I'll buy it.

I'll even tell myself that it's the appropriate consumer alternative to the definitely-not-Michael-Savage-owned Rockstar... or that it's the mass market energy drink that the conflicted traveling hippie herbalist who Michael Savage seems to have been thirty years ago shied away from releasing...
posted by darth_tedious at 5:35 PM on June 9, 2009

"...but the book is a solid and rich ethnography". Perhaps you're thinking of that other book?
posted by sneebler at 5:40 PM on June 9, 2009

Is vaudou the hip way to spell voodoo?

From what I gather it's a largely oral tradition, so you can spell it pretty much any way that sounds right. Last time I checked, you didn't do a spelling test to get into their parties.

I drink a fair bit of this stuff. I only really got into it for he sake of the big red skull on the can, and the fact that my role-playing group (yes, robocop is bleeding, WoD represent) is filled with occultists and we all ha a good giggle at the can. But it's not bad, and it really packs a whallop. I can drink V or Red Bull by the litre, but two cans of Samedi is really the upper limit.

Still like that Spring Valley blueberry stuff the best, though.
posted by Jilder at 5:48 PM on June 9, 2009

(Ug, my typing! I need a can of something, that's for sure.)
posted by Jilder at 5:52 PM on June 9, 2009

Way down in New Orleans, I met this old lady. She had an old doll. She said I'll teach you about Voodoo. She had some long shiny scissors. She said some magic words. She held the doll in the air. She took the scissors.. cut off all its fingers! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

My fingers! Bitch!
posted by Joe Beese at 6:12 PM on June 9, 2009

Bodycount in the house!
posted by Artw at 6:41 PM on June 9, 2009

It's the only energy drink with an attempt to kill James Bond on its record.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:12 PM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

"samedi says..."

november of 2004, randomblondeboy, metafilter member and digital creative director for this product, posted a notice to mefi projects. few noticed or responded.

was that wise?
posted by artof.mulata at 5:35 PM on June 10, 2009