Data centers have become a hot topic uniting Americans recently, with over 70% opposing the building of this infrastructure near their homes. So, Liquid Death and Garage Beer have banded together to create a viral ad asking viewers to drink their products, create pee, and then send it to the AI data center of their choice. According to Marketing Dive, the concept started with Liquid Death’s creative team, with comedian Sabrina Jalees coming up with the data center idea. It was repurposed into this ad, featuring NFL star Jason Kelce, who co-owns Garage Beer, showing the two brands teaming up together to promote their products and asking people to pee on computers "to save humanity."
“We have a lot of affinity for what those guys are doing: they’re doing comedy, and they’re also an indie trying to break into the mainstream. We’re positioning our energy drink as a light beer of energy — it’s fewer calories, it’s lighter, it’s more drinkable — so that was the strategy,” Liquid Death vice president of creative Andy Pearson told the publication. As for the peeing on data center concept, Pearson added that it’s the one issue that's common across America. “When you look at the data, it is literally the one thing that unites all Americans right now, across the spectrum.” In the video below, Kelce opens by stating "AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water."
Aside from electricity use and consumption pushing prices for all consumers, the next big issue that many data centers face is the amount of water that they consume in their operations. There have been several instances of data centers affecting the water supply of the neighborhood that they’re in. One example of this is this 615-acre campus in Fayetteville, which has been causing low water pressure for over 15 months as it secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water, while another report showed a Meta data center allegedly muddying the water supply in a Georgia town.
These concerns had tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon release claims that their data centers only consume a small amount of water, while Nvidia has also been developing technologies that will cut data center water use by up to 100%. Still, many feel that these efforts aren’t enough to address the issues being felt right now, leading to passionate and widespread resistance against these projects across the nation.
The two indie brands are trying to get on board the issue in a more lighthearted, less preachy way, making use of humor and a bit of crudeness to touch on sensitive issues like data centers. While the video has a disclaimer saying, “to please don’t actually send your pee,” some developments plan to use treated wastewater instead of fresh water for their water demands, so some data centers already use “pee” to cool their GPUs. We just wish that more of these facilities did this from the beginning, instead of making thousands of people suffer from water problems.