The Vodka-Red-Bull Placebo Effect


The Vodka-Red-Bull Placebo Effect

So, the placebo effect works with alcohol, too. Especially when combining it with so-called “energy drinks”, such as Red Bull. Interesting mind-control effects of high-powered marketing:
“A new study suggests that a psychological effect may be involved in riskier behavior after consuming energy-drink cocktails. People feel and act much drunker if their drink is labeled “vodka-Red Bull cocktail” than if the exact same drink is labeled as something else, found marketing researchers from Paris’s INSEAD business school and the University of Michigan. Furthermore, if the subjects already believed the mixture made you drunker, the effect was stronger.”

“Furthermore, the successful branding that the manufacturers of Red Bull have engaged in—from their ads, with the “Red Bull gives you wings” slogan, to the extreme sports competitions they sponsor—may be influencing not just whether people decide to buy the product, but how they respond to its name on the label of a cocktail, says Chandon. Its image, he means, is not that of a soothing beverage that helps you stay calm. “That’s not what people believe,” he says, and that matters when it comes to how they interpret its effects.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/caffeine-and-alcohol-placebo

Kent De Mond of the U.S. dives from the 27.5 m platform during round one of the 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in La Rochelle May 15, 2010. Last year’s inaugural series winner, Orlando Duque of Colombia, finished second to Gary Hunt of Britain with De Mond coming third. REUTERS/Dean Treml/Red Bull Photofiles (FRANCE – Tags: SPORT) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – RTR2DXDJ