Influencers on Tiktok were receiving Poppi vending machines for the Super Bowl. Fans of Poppi are devastated since it feels like Poppi is favoring the influencers, since they are the only ones who get sent vending machines. Poppi initially wanted to compete with its competitor, Olipop, which is also a healthy alternative soda brand like Poppi. However, it backfired since the machines cost a lot of money, and Oilipop commented on one of their videos which resurfaced all over the media and news outlets. So, to understand this whole situation, you need to know how Poppi started and how Poppi is trying to compete with their competitor.
Poppi started in 2015, when the co-founder and chief executive, Allison Ellisoworth, decided to take on the big soda branded companies and created her very own brand to make a prebiotic soda. She took this idea with her husband and went on Shark Tank and brought out her business with Poppi. This led to a spark in her mind about what to do with Poppi next. Allison reached thousands of people in her community, giving away cans of Poppi for free and slowly started to reach out to influencers. This is where Poppi started its debut and sold a ton of PR packages to these influencers for them. One of the PR packages that they sent to various influencers contained a vending machine that was featured during the Super Bowl halftime show being played, which sparked a controversy. 12th grader Jenna Salem says, ”I think they should also realize that during a time where a lot of people can’t afford things like that, it does kind of give a bad look to give really expensive things to already really rich people.” and this means that the most influencers who get these kinds of big branded pr packages should actually consider donating some of the products they receive, or they could be doing a free giveaway.
Poppi tries to go against these claims about a Tiktok that went viral, where Olipop commented on Poppi spending $25k on each vending machine on a Tiktok video. The claims Olipop has been making are not good for Poppi’s reputation. It also just doesn’t end up well since many people all over the media who used to be Poppi fans and supporters are now Ollipop supporters amidst this whole controversy, and now more people are also talking about how the price of Olipop is significantly cheaper than Poppi, and because of this Poppi actually started to lower their prices to $1 a can. 9th grader Raina Waseem says,” I think Poppi could have put in the vending machines in college campuses, and that could have really benefited their company if they wanted to, you know, promote it.” Waseem also says,”They could have even put out a deal on Poppi”, which means that Poppi should’ve been more inclusive for their community, since they used to hand them out to anyone who asked, but now people are upset that they don’t have the opportunity to receive these packages anymore and only big influencers are able to have this chance.
Due to the lack of awareness, Poppi now understands that giving vending machines only to influencers may be a bad hit to their reputation. The CEO of Poppi, Ellsworth decided to make a video addressing the rumors about how much the Poppi vending machines actually cost, and shared the revelation that they weren’t actually $25k, but instead half of that exact price.
