On Dakota Johnson’s first day on set to film her directorial debut Loser Baby, she grabbed a can of Celsius and started drinking. She said she spent much of the rest of the shoot with a Celsius in hand. He remembered feeling excited, and although he still found it difficult to sleep, surely it was just the inspiration from the creative process flowing through his body.
So her costume designer let her in on a secret: Celsius is an energy drink that contains 200mg of caffeine per can. That’s why she was up all night.
“On the back it’s just like ‘B12, Vitamin A’. I thought it was vitamins,” Johnson later admitted to Variety. “I didn’t realize it was basically just a caffeine overdose.”
Johnson isn’t the only person mistaking Celsius for a health drink based on its packaging.
Celsius presents itself as a workout supplement without sugar and artificial preservatives. Drink one and, according to the label, you’ll get a boost of “essential energy” that “speeds up metabolism” and “burns body fat.”
But turn the can over, and in the fine print you’ll see that it has 200mg of caffeine. That’s the equivalent of two cups of coffee, or almost six cans of Coca Cola. It’s on par with the Prime energy drink, which was the subject of Chuck Schumer’s ire last year: in a letter at the FDA, the New York senator called for an investigation into the “eye-popping” level of caffeine in Prime.
“I didn’t know it was like Red Bull,” Johnson said. “I thought it was a natural drink.”
If Red Bull is shorthand in order Formula 1 racing teams and college students party, and Prime is paired with man-child YouTubers who sell caffeine to pubescent boys, Celsius hits with a different group — and Johnson may be his avatar.
How Celsius won over women
For decades, caffeinated and alcoholic energy drinks like Monster, Red Bull and Four Loko have aligned with the interests of young people.
“These drinks were associated with energy, extreme sports, girls in bikinis,” said Frances Fleming-Milici, who studies energy drink marketing at the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Cheers. One 2015 to study found that men who valued masculine ideals tended to believe that consuming energy drinks made them more macho.
Celsius follows that playbook — to an extent. The brand has worked with YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul (a timely choice given that his brother, Logan Paul, puts his name on Prime), Nascar drivers and college football stars (this, despite the The NCAA ban to high levels of stimulants including guarana, a plant extract present in Celsius and other energy drinks). But it seems that Celsius wants influence outside of man caves and sporting events. How did he win over women? Softening their image and exploiting the billion dollar wellness industry.
Celsius’ skinny white cans feature cheery images of fresh fruit, graphics of people working out and the inspirational slogan ‘Live Fit’ – nothing like the warring bulls or ghoulish claw marks on Red Bull and Monster cans. There is no mention of caffeine on the front of the can, and instead of “energy drink”, Celsius uses the gentler phrase “essential energy”.
On TikTok, the most vocal fans of the drink are young women in expensive athletic clothes who love to work out. They say Celsius helps boost their gym days or boost their 3pm corporate slogs. The brand’s Instagram features DJ and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Xandra Pohl drink Celsius in a pooland Olympic track and field champion Tara Davis-Woodhall holding his mouth from a can between repetitions.
“The slim can, the color choices on the bottle and the influencers who have chosen to promote it reflect that there is this aura of health around,” said Fleming-Milici, “which I think is worrying, because it makes the People don’t know how much caffeine they consume.”
Representatives for Celsius did not respond to a request for comment.
In a Fortune interviewJohn Fieldly, CEO of Celsius, credited the brand’s success – last year, it made $1.3bn – to this change in marketing strategy. At the beginning, Celsius is inclined to “be more scientific”, presenting itself as a “thermogenic” drink with a “negative heat” effect. But during the pandemic, the company has dedicated itself to the fitness and lifestyle brand, partnering with gym franchises like Barry’s Bootcamp and working with first responders like nurses and police officers.
“The liquid should be more than the ingredients in the can,” Fieldly said. “We want Celsius to be like the Apple logo, or the Starbucks logo, or the iconic Monster Energy claw.”
It is well on its way: Celsius is now the third largest energy drink company in the United States. And a cult behind the drink has sprung up among wellness-minded women. For them, Celsius serves as an essential accessory for cool girls with busy schedules. The it-girl host of the anti-alarm podcast Red Scare even joked referred to as an alternative to cocaine in a recent episode.
“Are Celsius drinkers all right?”
Jill Lewis, a 58-year-old publicist who lives in Toronto, calls herself “a reformed Celsius junkie.” He’s been off the stuff for about a month, after drinking five or six cans a day for two or three years.
“If I was hungry, instead of having a snack, I would have a Celsius and I would feel full,” Lewis said.
Lewis started drinking Celsius because the label promised to boost his metabolism and provide a jolt of energy. “I work all the time, and I’m always looking for hacks,” he said. It wasn’t until one of Lewis’ grown children told her to stop drinking the drink that she realized it wasn’t as healthy as she first thought.
A doctor said the New York Post that energy drinks like Celsius can speed up your metabolism in the short term, but are unlikely to provide lasting results; experts also say that energy drinks have limited, if any, effect on weight loss and should complement a balanced diet and exercise. (The six studies that Celsius published on its website supporting its claims of metabolism-boosting and calorie-boosting effects were funded by the brand.) This did not stop a TikTok rumor of making the rounds last year that Celsius, which sells for about $3 a can, contains semaglutide, the active ingredient in the expensive diabetes drug Ozempic.
This summer, the Wall Street Journal published a report on young women with eating disorders who drink Celsius to feel full without having to eat proper meals. The head of adolescent medicine at the Cleveland Clinic told the Journal that a third of the hospital’s eating disorder patients consume energy drinks. (Celsius declined to comment for that piece; the drink is not sold as a meal replacement.)
Online, some Celsius drinkers say the product’s high level of caffeine doesn’t make them feel good. “Celsius drinkers are all ok,” one woman published on TikTok. “I took my first sip ever and it sent my body into a state of shock.” In other videos posted on the app, people reported feeling tired and having headaches and heart palpitations when they tried to stop drinking Celsius.
Dr. Siyab Panhwar, an interventional cardiologist at the Sanford Bemidji Medical Center in Minnesota, said it is possible that these are symptoms of caffeine withdrawal.
Stimulants like caffeine increase a person’s blood pressure and adrenaline levels. Other ingredients such as taurine and guarana extract – both present in Celsius – can enhance the effects of caffeine. “It sends you into this fight-or-flight mode, and that’s when people feel most wired and turned on,” Panhwar said.
The FDA says it is safe for the average healthy person to consume about 400 mg of caffeine a day, which is about four cups of coffee. “Imagine if one or two cups of coffee makes you nervous,” added Panhwar. “Having an energy drink will be much worse, and consuming several cans of a drink a day for a long period of time is potentially very problematic.” The creators of Celsius advice consumers will not have more than two cans in a day.
The FDA does not place a limit on caffeine in energy drinks because it considers them dietary supplements. The only limit exists for cola drinks like Coke or Pepsi. Jennifer L Temple, director of the nutrition and health research laboratory at the University of Buffalo, believes that is a problem.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that the FDA says the maximum limit for caffeine in Coca-Cola is 71mg per 12 ounces, but there is no maximum limit for a drink like Celsius, Red Bull or Prime,” Temple said.
As for whether Celsius is the vitamin-rich drink Johnson thought it was: The drink contains vitamins C and B12. However, customers settled a class action lawsuit against the brand last year, claiming the label misled them because it said the drink contained “no preservatives” when it contained citric acid. (Celsius disputes that citric acid was added for flavor).
Lewis ditched his Celsius habit just before going on a detox trip to a spa. It wasn’t hard to do. “I’m good at going cold turkey. I did that with smoking after college,” Lewis said. “Just ignore the symptoms.”
However, when he visits New York for work, he sometimes sits in a corner store, sees rows of Celsius drinks for sale, and feels a pang of desire. “I thought, ‘Should I get one?’ ” he said. “Damn, I wish they were good for me.”