Sport Drink Marketing and why Athlete Endorsed Products are Sending Mixed Messages

High performance sports can be extremely taxing on the body, and supplying your body with adequate nutrients and hydration is extremely important. Sports drinks have become increasingly popular as a form of hydration, electrolyte replacement and carbohydrate supplementation. But how much do they actually benefit your performance?

When you think about sports drinks, you probably think about Gatorade. Gatorade sports drinks accounted for the highest overall sports nutrition sales in 2016, and is one of the top most valuable sports brands in the world¹. In 2017, Gatorade’s total sales were $6.53 billion, and $127 million was spent on advertising in the U.S.¹. On their website, Gatorade’s homepage bombards you with images of high performance athletes like Serena Williams with Gatorade products, and targeted slogans like “help replace what you sweat” and “scientifically researched and game tested for athletes”². Everybody remembers those advertisements with Sydney Crosby chugging a Gatorade and then scoring a goal³. Athletes help build positive brand associations, but don’t necessarily define the link between the athlete and the brand itself⁴. If you really think about it, did Crosby actually drink Gatorade during his games? Athlete endorsed products have the potential to create perceptions that the product is healthier than it is, and can lead to overconsumption of unhealthy products⁵. Especially when it comes to targeted advertising, it can generate mixed messages when athletes are promoting unhealthy products but positively promoting exercise⁵. 

What is highly disappointing, but not altogether surprising, is that the Gatorade product nutrition information webpages are extremely misleading. The main page for Gatorade Thirst Quencher, the original gatorade product, has large, easy to see numbers for calories, carbohydrate and electrolyte content, but they are less than half of what is actually in a full 355 mL bottle. Nowhere on the page is a mention of serving size, and only when you click on the small nutrition facts link can you actually see these numbers are based on “per serving” amount, which is about 2.5 “per container”. Gatorade Thirst Quencher has 48 grams of added sugar per bottle, and sodium and potassium for electrolytes⁶. According to SportMedBC, sports drinks that make up 4-8% carbohydrates (4-8g/100mL) is most optimal for performance, and carbohydrate concentration for 11-15% (11-15g/100mL) is too high⁷. Gatorade Thirst Quencher sits at around 13g/100mL sugar. So while Gatorade has sufficient electrolyte content, its’ added sugar content may not be optimal for performance. 

There are a lot of conflicting studies about the effectiveness of sports drinks for high performance athletes. Many show that Gatorade does have positive effects on performance. Unfortunately, a lot of research done on Gatorade is industry-funded, introducing a significant conflict of interest¹⁰. It has also been found that industry funding of nutrition related research may bias in favour of sponsors products¹¹. However, not all studies have found positive effects from Gatorade. One study found that athletes had similar levels of performance when drinking water, coconut water and gatorade¹², and in another study, it was found that fluid retention and hydration was more effective using higher electrolyte content products in comparison to Gatorade¹³. Based on this last study, alternatives to sports drinks may include electrolyte supplements without added sugar, like Nuun or Ultima.

So how essential are sports drinks like Gatorade to high performance athletics? When you are exercising, you need to consider fluid replacement and fuel (carbohydrate) replacement¹⁴. You lose electrolytes when you sweat, and deficiencies can effect the amount of water in your body, the acidity of your blood, muscle function and other important processes¹⁵. Common electrolytes include calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium¹⁵. Fluid and electrolyte intake, necessary for sweat loss, needs to be balanced with carbohydrate intake to support energy demands¹⁴. In general, athletes in endurance sports engaged in more than 2 hours of moderate to high intensity exercise, benefit greatly from additional carbohydrate intake like sports drinks, but athletes engaged in team sports, involved in intermittent, high intensity exercise less than one hour should focus on hydrating with water^{12 14}. 

High performance athlete or not, drinking sports drinks may not benefit your performance as much as you would expect. Unless you’re competing in high intensity, longer duration exercise, the extra calories and added sugar may actually hinder it. So while media influence is an extremely powerful asset to increase demand, athlete endorsed products like Gatorade may be too good to be true. After all, marketing manipulating consumer bias is designed to favour Gatorade profits, and not necessarily your athletic performance.