Water brand Liquid Death will make others’ ads

Transparent, global reporting by Semafor journalists on politics, policy, business, finance, technology, climate, energy, media, entertainment, world affairs, China, Asia, Europe, Africa for US and international readers. The water brand Liquid Death is one of the purest marketing stories of the moment: a billion-dollar company that sells the ultimate commodity through edgy comedy. CEO Mike Cessario told Liz and me on last week’s Mixed Signals that his company’s in-house agency, Death Machine, has also taken on a “few select brands” as external clients. But they’ll need to understand LD’s hardcore sense of humor. “We don’t need” the money, Cessario said, noting the brand will do some $5 million in merch sales alone this year. “It’s like, hey, if you want the Liquid Death magic, we can do that … [but] if you want us to just go make something that’s not good and it’s going to take a lot of our time, it’s like, hey, that’s probably not interesting to us.”