'Real' Tru Blood to hit stores in September ... as orange soda
The fictional beverage featured prominently in HBO's vampire series 'True Blood' will be mass-marketed as orange soda in September.
Look, I love HBO's campy vamp dramedy "True Blood" just as much as the next person, but I tend to think the network is taking the whole bloodsucker craze a bit too far.
It was announced Monday that the show's fictional beverage, Tru Blood, will be available for purchase in stores this September — but instead of it being, you know, actual blood, it's now orange soda.
What?
According to the press release:
"The once-fictional Tru Blood beverage has now emerged as a real Blood Orange
carbonated drink ... The beverage boasts a crisp, slightly tart and lightly sweet tang, and the bottle has been crafted to replicate the appearance of the vampiric sustenance found on the series — blood type, logo and all."
No offense to those looking forward to running into their local bodega and grabbing a six-pack of Tru Blood orange soda, but I think this is consumerism at it's worst. I have to wonder who, exactly, this is being targeted to. I'd like to think that even die-hard fans of the show could separate entertainment from reality.
However, it seems there's actually been a demand for this.
"From its first season, fans have been enamored with the show and have expressed a keen interest in the Tru Blood beverage," [said] James Costos, vice president, Licensing & Retail at HBO. "We're extremely excited to be able to bring this original drink to life."
Yeah, it's interesting on the show, when it's actual synthetic blood created by people in Japan as a way to integrate vampires into mainstream society, not orange soda.
If I saw saw someone walking down the street swigging a bottle of O negative Tru Blood with a straight face, I might die laughing.
—Perrie Samotin
