Footballer Lionel Messi has launched his own drinks brand, and it’s already raising eyebrows. Some suggest the Inter Miami player’s “Positive Hydration” offering Mas+ has some fairly glaring similarities with the popular drinks brand Prime. It’s even caught the attention of one of established rival’s founders.
While it’s undoubtedly a tricky task to create a truly original packaging design, the details are shockingly alike, from the shape of the bottle down to the logo placement. While fans are divided over whether Lionel’s legacy will be enough to carry the brand, it’s a bold move to emulate Gen Z’s favourite drink (whether intentional or not).
Prime energy packaging (left) compared to Mas+ (right) (Image credit: Getty Images/Mas+)
At its core, Mas+ appears to be a labour of love. “I wanted a drink to inspire everyone to feel like a champion in every part of life,” Messi explains on the brand’s official website. “You shouldn’t have to choose between better ingredients and better taste,” the founder adds.
The issues arise with the brand packaging that feels dangerously close to the wildly popular YouTuber juice created by KSI and Logan Paul. Like Prime, Mas+ comes in both bottle and can form, featuring bright colours and a bold wordmark logo that runs vertically on the side of the packaging. To the untrained eye, the products certainly share similarities, which didn’t go unnoticed by Prime cofounder KSI.
Under an announcement tweet from EuroFoot, KSI replied with a subtle dig, simply commenting “Looks familiar…” It’s clear that some fans agreed, with one writing “They copied Prime’s design and pasted it in Chat GPT 4.0. It gave them Mas +,” while another added “Lawsuit incoming.”
It’s currently unclear how the design debacle will unfold. Still, with Prime already dominating the drinks sphere and Messi backed by a footballing legacy, I think a little controversy never goes amiss in marketing. For more design disputes, check out Volkswagen’s latest attack on a “bastardised” ripoff or take a look at the Harley Davidson’s recent legal battle over a “copycat” logo design.
