The first time I saw a Buzz Ball can it was near my house as I walked my dog with my neighbour a Mum of three teenagers. I spotted the array of discarded brightly coloured cans, that looked like coloured tennis balls I thought and said oh look, I noticed them immediately, “I wonder what they are” I said. I wish I’d taken a picture. So unusual and like nothing I’d ever seen before I stopped to pick one up and investigate.

Oh buzz balls my neighbour replied casually. They are what the kids drink. She didn’t mean her kids particularly, it was a more general statement but the way she said it really stayed with me.

“What the kids drink” A fun colourful cocktail made from booze and sweet fizzy pop served up in a neat colourful ball of fun with a very catchy clever name and candy cane like individual names designed to draw you in. Hmmm.

It looked like the Sazerac brand had done a great job attracting young customers. Adults don’t have a party in the lanes around my neighbourhood and then leave their rubbish behind. It’s the countryside. We pick up our picnic waste.

It reminded me of an amazing American documentary I watched about one of the first vape brands with a similar marketing strategy. I’d really recommend watching this chilling series available on Netflix “The Big Vape, The Rise and Fall Of Juul, released October, 2023 which tracked the multi million dollar trajectory of the “brightly coloured” electronic cigarette company/brand marketed to young people as the ease of carrying, ease of using secretively in school and highly addictive nicotine content got young people addicted very quickly and made billions for the founders. Buzz Balls sounded the same to me, exploiting the impressionability and copycat behaviour of the young. Get someone addicted to what you sell and you’ll make a fortune marketing strategy. Who better than school kids? I am not a parent, or grand parent so some might argue what do I know, but I am an adult who is not addicted to alcohol, understands the harm and dangers of addiction and can take or leave a martini if I fancy one or not. And someone who doesn’t believe being legless at any age is a good look.

In my days it was a Baby Cham or a Cherry B served in a champagne coupe for extra sophistication, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t a goodie two shoes or a non drinker at all but I was always reminded, had it in my mind too much boozing wasn’t a good look and “drunks always finish last” a saying that was repeated like a mantra it did stick eventually.

Now I enjoy a drink but I am like the French when it comes to my martinis, three is too many.

Now I have Buzz Balls on my radar I am seeing them everywhere. Even in my local news agent convenience shop where they are available in the cooler fridges next to the Ribena and Coca Cola.

I’ve even seen their print ads at the bus stop where school kids stand and wait for the bus. In plain sight. I don’t think The Sazerac brand thought let’s advertise at bus stops to get the over 60s drinking Buzz Balls and buying in.

I am not a prude or a leftie gunning for more legislation, more a thinking feminist creative child of the 1960s but you don’t have to be an idiot to see even students, legal drinking age consumers have moved on from Buzz Balls by the time they get to University, more interested in Sex on the Beach or a Porn Star Martini by then.

Why do you think the 99p shot was the next big product launched. Their audience has grown tolerant and needs the buzz quicker and harder.

Personally I think convenience booze, unless it’s a serving of one glass of wine not everyone wants to buy and or drink a whole bottle should be looked at more closely. We all know a cheap price and heavily marketed products drives sales.

If you cannot be bothered or don’t have access to glasses and ice should you really be having a cocktail in the street? Picnics with wine and cocktails excluded I cannot think of any other outdoor activity where convenience and boozing go together for adults.

I have no doubt Buzz Balls and the “nostalgic” 99 shot are here for the foreseeable. After a little research I cannot stop the algorithm showing me them on social media despite my “I’m not interested” cries.

Move over jello shots. There’s a new kid in town.