The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023
Gatorade makes 'Drink Water' Rivera the No Sugar star — water everywhere, except workouts
To relaunch No Sugar across APAC, Gatorade hired the viral student named Drink Water, whose 'hydration is life' creed flips at the gym
Gatorade
What it had to solve
Gatorade's heritage with GOAT athletes had created a perception that the brand was only for professionals. Relaunching Gatorade No Sugar in APAC was the moment to speak to a broader active audience, add everyday occasions and feel locally relevant — and a student named Drink Water Rivera had just gone viral because of his name and his motto, 'hydration is life'.
How it works
Gatorade's history with GOAT athletes made it the drink of professionals, which left ordinary active people outside the brand. Relaunching Gatorade No Sugar across APAC was the chance to fix that: speak to a broader active audience, earn consideration in more everyday occasions and feel locally relevant. Around the same time, a student named Drink Water Rivera had gone viral purely because of his name and his motto — 'hydration is life'.
The coincidence was the idea. Gatorade worked with Rivera on a lighthearted documentary about a man who chooses water at every occasion in his life: the joke sets up his whole identity as the water guy, and the film then finds the single exception — when he works out, he chooses Gatorade No Sugar, because exercise makes him lose more than just water. The product's reason to exist is delivered as the punchline of the story.
The result was a relaunch film in which the brand's pros-only image and its local relevance were solved by one piece of casting. The work entered the D&AD archive under Casting; the archive page records no audience or sales figures, leaving the idea — a man named Drink Water selling a sports drink — as the case.
Why it lands
- Rivera's viral identity was the opposite of a sports-drink ad, so the tension between who he is and what he endorses was the entertainment.
- Putting the product at the one exception — workouts — stated its reason to exist without attacking water or hydration culture.
- A locally viral personality made the APAC relaunch feel native rather than imported, answering the brief's local-relevance goal.
- The film educated viewers about what sweat takes out of the body through humor instead of a claims-driven ad.
What it did
The casting turned the brand's biggest obstacle into the whole joke: a person whose public identity is 'water first' becomes the proof that sport is the one occasion needing something more. A drink positioned for elites got an everyday, local and funny entry point for the APAC relaunch; the film is archived by D&AD under Casting.
What you can take
If a brand feels exclusive, borrow the person who embodies the opposite belief and let the story end where that belief stops — the product becomes the joke's answer.
Since then
The mockumentary ran from March 2023, when Philippine media covered Gatorade's unexpected endorser and the shift from 'Drink Water drinks water' to 'Drink Water drinks Gatorade No Sugar'. The film stayed in the D&AD archive under Casting, with the page recording no reach or sales figures.
Sources
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