Liquid Death

2017brand memeactive

Published September 5, 2026

Liquid Death is a canned mountain water brand launched in 2017 by former Netflix creative director Mike Cessario, marketed to heavy metal fans with skull imagery and the tagline 'Murder Your Thirst.' After a 2019 investment from startup incubator Science, the brand ballooned into a $700 million company by 2022, becoming one of the internet's favorite case studies in absurdist marketing13.

advertising memesconsumer culture memesabsurdist humor memesbrand participation memes2017 memes

Overview

Liquid Death is still water and sparkling water sold in tallboy aluminum cans that deliberately mimic the visual language of cheap beer, complete with a stylized skull and the tagline 'Murder Your Thirst'1. The brand's whole gag is the mismatch: it's the healthiest possible drink dressed up in the trappings of the unhealthiest, aimed at punks, metalheads, straight-edge kids, and anyone who wants something in their hand at a bar without ordering alcohol2.

The memes come from the marketing itself. Ads feature anthropomorphic killer water hacking through crowds with an axe, waterboarding gags, and cheerfully violent copy that reads more like a horror-movie trailer than a beverage spot1. Discourse around Liquid Death tends to split into two camps online: people quoting the ads as absurdist comedy, and people posting some version of 'it's literally just water in a beer can, how is this worth hundreds of millions of dollars'3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Mike Cessario
Date
2017

Liquid Death was dreamed up by Mike Cessario, a former creative director at Netflix, along with bartender Pat Cook, J.R. Riggins, and 'Mr. Pickles' co-creator Will Carsola4. Cessario has said his background in the punk and metal scenes convinced him there was an audience of health-conscious kids who still wanted something loud and stupid to drink1. A Facebook page for the brand went live on October 18th, 2017, and the product itself is naturally alkaline mountain water sourced from the Austrian Alps and packed in aluminum tallboys, which the company argues are more recyclable than plastic bottles4.

The first big piece of viral marketing came on January 21st, 2019, when Liquid Death posted a YouTube commercial featuring an actress waterboarding a person, which pulled in over 50,000 views4. Vice covered the brand that same month, giving it its first significant press outside the ad-industry trades2.

How It Spread

On May 7th, 2019, Liquid Death dropped a second trailer that hit more than 10,000 views in a day, timed to the announcement that startup incubator Science, the group behind Dollar Shave Club, had put $1.6 million into the company3. Business Insider5, Daily Dot6, and BuzzFeed News picked it up, and Twitter reactions ranged from mockery ('this water would be more useful in Flint') to reluctant admiration for getting men to actually drink water3.

The brand kept its online momentum through weird stunts. On August 24th, 2022, Liquid Death asked followers to change their passwords to a company-supplied phrase so the brand could log in and tweet from their accounts, and at least three people actually did it7. Two days later, on August 26th, 2022, TikTok creator @briiink 8 posted a clip of internet personality Daniel Larson trying Liquid Death, which racked up over 231,000 likes within a month4.

On October 3rd, 2022, Axios reported that Liquid Death had raised $70 million in new funding at a $700 million valuation9. The number got recirculated for days by users like @Katie_Roof, who tweeted that it was 'water in a beer can' and pulled almost 2,800 likes, and @andrew__rea, whose similar joke got around 400 likes the next day1011. The valuation itself became the meme: proof, depending on your read, that branding beats product or that the internet will pay a premium for a good joke.

How to Use This Meme

The Liquid Death meme typically shows up in two flavors online. The first is straight brand engagement: sharing the ads, quoting 'Murder Your Thirst,' or posting the can as a stand-in for teetotal-but-cool energy at bars and shows. The second is meta-commentary, usually a screenshot of the valuation or a can with a caption pointing out that it's just water, often used as shorthand for 'branding is everything' in marketing Twitter threads311.

Frequently Asked Questions

Liquid Death

2017brand memeactive

Published September 5, 2026

Liquid Death is a canned mountain water brand launched in 2017 by former Netflix creative director Mike Cessario, marketed to heavy metal fans with skull imagery and the tagline 'Murder Your Thirst.' After a 2019 investment from startup incubator Science, the brand ballooned into a $700 million company by 2022, becoming one of the internet's favorite case studies in absurdist marketing13.

advertising memes consumer culture memes absurdist humor memes brand participation memes 2017 memes

Overview

Liquid Death is still water and sparkling water sold in tallboy aluminum cans that deliberately mimic the visual language of cheap beer, complete with a stylized skull and the tagline 'Murder Your Thirst'1. The brand's whole gag is the mismatch: it's the healthiest possible drink dressed up in the trappings of the unhealthiest, aimed at punks, metalheads, straight-edge kids, and anyone who wants something in their hand at a bar without ordering alcohol2.

The memes come from the marketing itself. Ads feature anthropomorphic killer water hacking through crowds with an axe, waterboarding gags, and cheerfully violent copy that reads more like a horror-movie trailer than a beverage spot1. Discourse around Liquid Death tends to split into two camps online: people quoting the ads as absurdist comedy, and people posting some version of 'it's literally just water in a beer can, how is this worth hundreds of millions of dollars'3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Mike Cessario
Date
2017

Liquid Death was dreamed up by Mike Cessario, a former creative director at Netflix, along with bartender Pat Cook, J.R. Riggins, and 'Mr. Pickles' co-creator Will Carsola4. Cessario has said his background in the punk and metal scenes convinced him there was an audience of health-conscious kids who still wanted something loud and stupid to drink1. A Facebook page for the brand went live on October 18th, 2017, and the product itself is naturally alkaline mountain water sourced from the Austrian Alps and packed in aluminum tallboys, which the company argues are more recyclable than plastic bottles4.

The first big piece of viral marketing came on January 21st, 2019, when Liquid Death posted a YouTube commercial featuring an actress waterboarding a person, which pulled in over 50,000 views4. Vice covered the brand that same month, giving it its first significant press outside the ad-industry trades2.

How It Spread

On May 7th, 2019, Liquid Death dropped a second trailer that hit more than 10,000 views in a day, timed to the announcement that startup incubator Science, the group behind Dollar Shave Club, had put $1.6 million into the company3. Business Insider5, Daily Dot6, and BuzzFeed News picked it up, and Twitter reactions ranged from mockery ('this water would be more useful in Flint') to reluctant admiration for getting men to actually drink water3.

The brand kept its online momentum through weird stunts. On August 24th, 2022, Liquid Death asked followers to change their passwords to a company-supplied phrase so the brand could log in and tweet from their accounts, and at least three people actually did it7. Two days later, on August 26th, 2022, TikTok creator @briiink 8 posted a clip of internet personality Daniel Larson trying Liquid Death, which racked up over 231,000 likes within a month4.

On October 3rd, 2022, Axios reported that Liquid Death had raised $70 million in new funding at a $700 million valuation9. The number got recirculated for days by users like @Katie_Roof, who tweeted that it was 'water in a beer can' and pulled almost 2,800 likes, and @andrew__rea, whose similar joke got around 400 likes the next day1011. The valuation itself became the meme: proof, depending on your read, that branding beats product or that the internet will pay a premium for a good joke.

How to Use This Meme

The Liquid Death meme typically shows up in two flavors online. The first is straight brand engagement: sharing the ads, quoting 'Murder Your Thirst,' or posting the can as a stand-in for teetotal-but-cool energy at bars and shows. The second is meta-commentary, usually a screenshot of the valuation or a can with a caption pointing out that it's just water, often used as shorthand for 'branding is everything' in marketing Twitter threads311.

Frequently Asked Questions