Ben Careathers v Red Bull

Ben Careathers was not complaining of not sprouting wings from drinking Red Bull; rather, his primary issue was that after decade of indulging in their fizzy fuel he did not experience improved athletic or intellectual performance.

Everyone knows about Red Bull giving you wings. However, how much do you know about its lawsuit resulting from this?

Early Life and Education

Ben Careathers was born in a log cabin near Chattanooga, Tennessee. At age 18, fleeing starvation on his sharecropper’s patch for work in Pennsylvania led him away from Tennessee forever.

In Pittsburgh, he worked as both a typist and sheet metal worker at steel plants. In 1919, he led the famous steel strike there.

No matter how many strikes he joined, Careathers never lost faith in social change. He believed in the power of working class organizations and had deep, almost folk wisdom. Unlike middle class intellectuals who dominated social change theory, he understood that words alone weren’t enough – that capitalist institutions must be broken apart with “comrade hands,” led by someone like himself to lead us out. He would lead by example.

Professional Career

Since 1998, Mr. Martin has defended clients involved in asbestos litigation for over 20 years. He is well known for his proven record of success with both local and national defense strategies as well as for providing effective yet cost-efficient legal representation to his clients.

Red Bull ads or billboards often feature the slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings.” In 2013, Benjamin Careathers took that motto seriously by filing suit against Red Bull alleging false advertising.

Personal Life

Careathers played an instrumental role in helping the Black Left gain national prominence during the Red Scare, serving as one of the primary distributors for Communist party literature in his region and teaching classes, pressing for funding to enforce fair employment policies, running for state offices and serving as treasurer of his local chapter of the Communist Party.

Careathers would become a federal defendant in a Smith Act sedition case during the late ’70s, facing accusations from Pittsburgh prosecutors that he and four other communists from Pittsburgh filed fraudulent election petitions in 1940. After careful examination by lawyers, however, these accusations failed to hold up under scrutiny and charges against Careathers were soon dropped; Careathers continued his activism work while living out his days until his death at age 75 in Beltzhoover in 1964.