Energy drink Jolt is coming to the rescue of the sleep-deprived citizens of Barrow AK, today, the longest day of the year, with an emergency airlift of caffeinated drinks timed to this year’s summer solstice.
And Barrowites are showing their gratitude to the beverage maker by re-christening their city for the day as Jolt, Alaska. The change, it’s maintained, will make the city located 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle more visible to the cargo pilots flying pallets of free Jolt Energy in for the event.
Of course, “day” is a pretty theoretical concept in Barrow at this time of year. Located 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it’s the northernmost city in the U.S. and daylight is a chronic condition. In fact, the sun rose on Barrow almost six weeks ago, and sunset won’t come for another six weeks.
Jolt, a division of Wet Planet LLC, bills itself as the “official drink of the summer solstice” and has touted its caffeine content since its launch in 1985. In 2006, the company added other active ingredients such as taurine, guarana and ginseng.
“We will not stand idly by and let the citizens of Barrow go uncaffeinated through their 1992-hour day,” Wet Planet founder and president C.J. Rapp said in a statement.
Barrow—or rather Jolt, for today—has a population of about 4,000. That makes it about 13 times larger than the city of Halfway OR, which agreed in 1999 to rename itself Half.com after an online auction site, in return for financial considerations. Half.com was bought by eBay in 2001, and the town reverted to its earlier name.
Cenergy created and executed the campaign.
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