Liquid Death Collaborated with Travis Barker on a Branded Enema Kit

Brendan Menapace

Liquid Death’s new branded promotional product is a partnership with Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker. It’s a Liquid Death x Travis Barker enema kit, and it’s called “Enema of the State.”

Now, this might seem outrageous to the untrained eye (or ear). But, it actually makes a bit of sense. Blink 182 released an album in 1999 called “Enema of the State,” which many fans and critics would say is their best one. It’s certainly the one that launched them into the mainstream with hits like “All the Small Things” and “What’s My Age Again?”

Now almost 25 years later, Blink is headlining Coachella, and Barker, now married to a Kardashian, is a very marketable figure. The kit comes in a branded box with a photo of a can of Liquid Death water (thankfully not carbonated), a black rubber enema bulb with “Liquid Death x Travis Barker” printed on it, and a photo of the heavily-tattooed Barker on the side of the box.

The can of water inside is autographed by Barker, and it costs an appropriate $182.

While Liquid Death has been going to extremes with its marketing campaigns (see a T-shirt designed by a guy who broke 50-some bones in a skydiving accident or the “power briefs”) this one has a very important disclaimer attached to it:

Enema of the State is a limited edition collectible adult art piece and not intended for use as a real medical device.

Liquid Death goes into gory-detail territory with explicit directions about what you should not do with the promotional item without medical supervision.

The company has been excelling at this sort of stunt marketing pretty much since its inception. You kind of have to do something like that to set your product apart from the competition when your product is literally water. Marketing is 90% of Liquid Death’s success, really. As they say, it’s just water. But, people now choose it over other water brands or even their own tap because they like being in on these jokes and brand aesthetic.

There’s so much talk about telling a brand’s story, but when your brand story is water, you have to make a story up sometimes. Liquid Death has done just that. And, by teaming up with Barker, they both get some credibility. Barker is advertising the return of Blink, a band that has never been afraid of a toilet joke or nudity, and Liquid Death gets to climb aboard the hype train.

The bottom line here is that this is the kind of attention-grabbing product that distributors might dream of. Granted, they might choose a different product to use. But, looking past its supposed intended use, this is a small product with minimal branding that is gaining headlines at big publications both related to music and beyond. Having the attachment to a star like Barker certainly helps, but Liquid Death has been doing just fine on its own with creative promotional campaigns. This is just the latest one, and it proves that bigger isn’t necessarily better.

You can take a small object with minimal branding, but if the larger concept is especially clever or funny or eye-catching, it will perform beyond the expectations.

We can only imagine that Liquid Death will follow this up in the future with either branded pants or jackets.

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