Ever wondered why Japan isn’t selling Prime energy drinks? Learn the surprising reason behind the absence of this popular drink in the Japanese market, founded by Logan Paul and KSI.
Prime Hydration, LLC produces the Prime brand of energy drinks, drink mixes, and sports beverages. Logan Paul and KSI, two well-known YouTubers and internet celebrities, founded and advertised the drink. After the announcement and product launch in 2022, these social media influencers created a lot of buzz on social media. They collectively had more than 10 million followers. The drink was also promoted through sponsorship agreements with famous sports.
Prime hydration became a famous energy drink.
HOW DID THE DRINK BECOME POPULAR?
With millions of followers across several platforms and over 40 million YouTube subscribers combined, YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul announced on a live Instagram stream on January 4, 2022, that they had launched a new beverage company called Prime Hydration. Due to their engagement, the product became highly popular on social media, and school-age children especially teenage boys, began to place orders.
So, why is it not available in Japan?
LOGAN PAUL’S IMAGE IN JAPAN
Long before the event in Aokigahara, Logan Paul was acting in a disrespectful, uncivilized, and unpleasant manner in Japan. He targeted many innocent Japanese people just for his YouTube videos. A lot of his targets in Japan were deeply hurt and furious. He went from playing with fish from Tsukiji and putting it onto a cab, to many other similar acts of hatred.
A trip to Japan in December 2017 was possibly connected to one of the most damaging scandals of Paul’s career. Paul visited the Aokigahara, a forest near Mount Fuji that is well-known as Japan’s suicide forest, in one of the many vlogs he uploaded about the trip. Paul played up the “spooky,” death-related elements of the scene while filming himself wandering around the forest while sporting a green Toy Story cap.
There he also included uncensored footage of a man who seems to have hanged himself. On its release day, the video gained 6 million views. Not long after Paul removed it due to criticism from viewers regarding his choice to feature a video of a man who is trying to suicide. YouTube kicked Paul out of its popular Google Preferred advertising tier in response to the public’s anger.
After these incidents, Logan Paul was resented by Japanese people. This is why a brand advertised by Logan Paul wasn’t positively popular.
CONTROVERSY OF PRIME HYDRATION DRINKS
Recently Prime energy drinks faced a major controversy in America. Senator Charles Schumer of New York has asked the FDA to look into Paul’s beverage, Prime, for its marketing and caffeine concentration. Sold in cans, Prime Energy was discontinued in 2023. It has a caffeine content similar to other popular energy drinks, all of which are under the legal limits of the nations in which they are sold. Before going on sale, it complied with all FDA regulations that it shouldn’t be consumed by anybody younger than 18. The backlash was so deep that it went out of market in many countries.
Although in the future, it might be a possibility that Prime drinks may be available in Japan, for now, they are under strict surveillance by the FDA.
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