Vitamin Water’s Facebook Flavor Tastes Like The Matrix

In September, vitaminwater launched an interactive Facebook app which its fans could use to design and vote on a new flavor of vitaminwater. Well, the polls have been closed and the votes have been tallied, and the world finally has a Facebook-themed flavor of vitaminwater, called Connect.

Now, about that flavor: Connect will be “a tasty black cherry-lime flavor made with caffeine and 8 key nutrients.” Do you know what else was black cherry-lime flavored, according to Wikipedia? You guessed it: Powerade’s Matrix Reloaded promotional drink from 2003. Coincidence?

A comparison: the new Facebook vitaminwater’s flavor and design were determined by a contest, with an entrant named Sarah, from Illinois, taking home a $5,000 grand prize.

Matrix Reloaded Powerade, by contrast, was “one of the biggest, if not the biggest, marketing program for [Powerade in] 2003,” according to a press release from the time; it even had a set of commercials featuring Agent Smith telling you to “drink more Powerade.” It was later rereleased as the more straightforward Black Cherry Lime Powerade. Whereas the vitaminwater takes its inspiration from the black cherry and is colored a dark pinkish red, the lime prevails for both Matrix Reloaded and Black Cherry Lime Powerade, which are cyberpunk green.

Facebook’s new vitaminwater flavor is a win-win for both companies, with Facebook getting its name on supermarket shelves across America and vitaminwater garnering more than 1 million Facebook fans. But this does add fuel to the common criticism that Facebook may in fact be, in the words of the IMDb, “an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is ‘farmed’ to fuel the Matrix’s campaign of domination in the ‘real’ world.”

Here’s the ad for Matrix Reloaded Powerade from way back when:

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(Matrix Reloaded Powerade photo via BevNET)