The Bang Army was ready
Chapter 4 of the special Fingers miniseries on the most chaotic rise-and-fall tale the modern beverage business has yet seen
Editor’s note: The boozeletter’s regular programming is on a honeymoon hiatus. While I’m gone, I’ve created a special miniseries from my (lightly edited) contemporaneous coverage of Bang Energy’s incredible rise and fall earlier this decade for the reading pleasure of paying Friends and Fingers old and new. Please buy a subscription to read The Ballad of Bang Energy in its entirety, if you haven’t yet. We’ll return to regular programming in early October!—Dave.
Chapter 4: The Bang Army is ready, I repeat, the Bang Army is ready
Originally published September 2022 | Read previous chapters at Fingers.email
Ben Franklin once famously said that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” But some two and a half centuries later, another perpetual truth would emerge: namely, that Bang Energy CEO Jack Owoc will never stop posting for the 1.1 million Instagram followers he’s amassed as @bangenergy.ceo. Ever.
Videos of himself getting injected with stem cells for #gains? Post it. Dubious, legally actionable food-science claims? Post. It. Wanted poster-style illustrations of top executives of a one-time business partner that also happens to be one of the biggest consumer packaged goods firms on the globe?
You already know.
It’s been awhile since we here at Fingers HQ have checked in on South Florida’s swolest Willie Wonka impersonator. We last left our intrepid “super creatine” creator this past April facing down a massive $175 million arbitration judgement stemming from a trademark-infringement lawsuit against his firm VPX Sports (née Vital Pharmaceuticals) brought by Orange Bang, a small Southern California concern that picked up some legal muscle in the litigation from perennial Owoc foe and newly minted Beast Unleasher Monster Beverage Corporation, which is also suing Bang, but separately. Recall that Owoc’s Instagram posts featured explicitly in that judgement. As Fingers reported at the time: