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Liquid Death made water for the guy in the band, and it ended up in 113,000 stores
In 2009, punk bands on tour were filling energy drink cans with water to get through their sets. Liquid Death was born from that scene, and the way it started is worth taking into your next brief.
Mateus CremonDesigner, Cremon Studio · 3 min read
In 2009, the Vans Warped Tour was crossing the US, a punk festival that moved from city to city, and Monster was sponsoring it. On stage, the bands would empty their energy drink cans and refill them with water to get through their sets.
That's how Mike Cessario tells it. He was there watching his friends play. A few years later he started Liquid Death, a canned water brand that was valued at $1.4 billion in 2024.
Water didn't look like it belonged on stage
The guys wanted to drink water. But water didn't look like it belonged on stage. Energy drink cans and beer cans did.
Warped Tour 2009, with Dance Gavin Dance on stage. Photo: benuski/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Cessario knew both sides of that scene. He had played in punk and metal bands, and he spent years in advertising, at agencies like VaynerMedia and Crispin Porter Bogusky.
An ad before the can
In 2018, Liquid Death didn't have a single can to sell. He set up a Facebook page for the brand anyway and spent $1,500 shooting a commercial, plus a few thousand dollars in media.
A frame from Liquid Death's first commercial, which ran on Facebook in 2018. Frame: Liquid Death.
He says the video passed 3 million views in four or five months, and the brand's page ended up with more followers than Aquafina's. That was before it had sold a single can. To me, that's the detail that explains Liquid Death best. Before the product existed, people already saw themselves in that scene.
The 16.9 oz can
The water went on sale in January 2019, on its own website and on Amazon. At first it came from a spring in the Austrian Alps, but everything new about it was in the can.
It was a 16.9 oz can, the size of a beer can, with a melting skull in the logo and the slogan "Murder Your Thirst." From across the room at a show, nobody can tell you're drinking water.
The classic 16.9 oz can. Photo: Liquid Death.
You can trace every choice on that can back to 2009. The size is the can the guy was already holding on stage, and the skull and the slogan come from the bands Cessario used to go watch.
113,000 stores
By 2023 it was in 113,000 stores across the US and the UK, with $263 million in retail sales. In 2024 that reached $333 million, and in March of that year, after a $67 million funding round, the company was valued at $1.4 billion.
All of that from selling water, the most boring thing in the fridge.
Then, in December 2025, came my favorite part. Liquid Death launched its own energy drink, Sparkling Energy. The brand that was born inside a Monster can now has an energy drink can of its own.
The target audience and the scene
When a brief says the brand is for "18 to 34 year olds," everyone in the meeting pictures someone different. With the guy in the band, everyone sees the same scene, the stage, the thirst, and the can in his hand.
And a scene gives you design decisions. Size, shape, color, what goes on the can. I've never seen "18 to 34 year olds" turn into a can.
On your next brief, cross out "target audience" and write the scene. Who's there, and what that person wants to be holding. For Liquid Death, it was a guy on stage, thirsty, holding an energy drink can full of water.
