Monster, Celsius Bankroll College Sports to Reach Teens — SkimNews
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- Monster Energy signed a $20 million-a-year deal with the Big 12 Conference — which includes Brigham Young University — to become its "official entitlement partner," with patches placed on every game jersey.
- Celsius partnered with ESPN to sponsor College GameDay, calling college sports "where the next generation of fans and consumers are shaping culture" in a press release.
- Emergency room visits by teens and young adults from energy drink ingestion doubled from 2017 to 2023, while America's Poison Centers reported a 24% increase in calls for "pediatric exposure to energy drinks" between 2022 and 2023.
- The Connecticut General Assembly formally entered details of more than three dozen local deaths strongly linked to energy drinks, though no federal agency tracks energy drink-related deaths nationally.
- The Susan Katz Caffeine Safety Act, which would require mandatory disclosure of caffeine amounts in beverages and food, failed to pass Congress in both 2025 and 2026.
- Norway and Kuwait have imposed strict rules banning energy drink sales to teens, and the European Food Safety Authority is updating its guidance after a soft pass a decade ago.
- The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Congress advised extreme restraint on youth energy drink consumption more than a decade ago, but producers agreed only to stop advertising to children under 12.
Why it matters: The $20 million Monster-Big 12 deal and the Celsius-ESPN partnership put energy drink logos directly in front of young fans during peak impressionable years, while the Susan Katz Caffeine Safety Act — the only meaningful federal response — has failed twice in Congress, leaving parents and individual school districts in Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky to push for bans on their own.
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