AriZona Beverages has partnered with basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal to launch an all-natural cream soda line, Soda Shaq.
The soda contains vanilla
from Madagascar, is sweetened with pure cane sugar, has no artificial colors or preservatives, and has 90 calories per serving (nearly one-third fewer calories than competitors), according to the
launch release.
The line offers four varieties: original vanilla cream, orange cream, blueberry cream and strawberry cream.
The sodas are being sold nationwide,
for a suggested retail of 99 cents per can, in AriZona's signature 23.5-ounce cans, supplied by Rexam.
The can design features a prominent image of Shaq's face and the tagline
"A Big Can for the Big Man."
AriZona continues to tout its "no frills approach" to consumer marketing -- saying that it "never pays for glitzy advertising campaigns to gain
consumer loyalty and is constantly ahead of the curve, carving out trends without the use of focus groups and market research."
Instead, the brand says, it "pulls its own
inspiration from its fierce social media following and devoted fan base" across demographics.