• Chicago Tribune, Brand Channel, Fast Company, Friday, November 5, 2010 10:55 AM

Michigan's Liquor Control Commission announced yesterday that it is banning 55 alcoholic caffeinated drinks such as Phusion Projects' Four Loko, which contains 12% alcohol and about as much caffeine as a tall Starbucks coffee in its 23.5-ounce can, Kristin Samuelson reports.

Phusion Projects, which claims consumers have been mixing alcohol and caffeine for years in such drinks as Red Bull and vodka and rum and cola, claimed in a statement that the commission did not provide advance notice of its proposed action and "did not give parties who will be affected by the ban any opportunity to be heard on whether the ban is warranted or authorized by law."

Earlier this week, BrandChannel's Abe Sauer ("Four Loco Declines To Own Its Marketing Strategy") and Fast Company' s Austin Carr ("How Four Loko Sanitized Its Social Media") both took a detailed look at Phusion Projects' efforts to cover its Four Loco social marketing tracks.

Read the whole story at Chicago Tribune, Brand Channel, Fast Company »