Kim Kardashian is once again using her own news stories as marketing material. The entrepreneur and reality star has become the face of UPDATE as co-founder of the functional energy drink and the first campaign is all Kardashian. A spoof press-conference style video, distributed in late July, went viral and focused on an offbeat tone that celebrated self-parody and beautiful people in the same breath, with ample product placement.
In the ad, Kardashian is on a podium fielding questions about how busy she is, her looks, and her new line of law endeavors. Just as attorney Gloria Allred enters and questions whether she passed the bar exam, she responds with an on-the-spot improvisation: “No, I didn’t pass the bar, I raised it.” The ad playfully references her real 2025 California bar exam attempt but twists it into something triumphant and a little geeky.
Other jokes are equally self-deprecating. She tells the press her energy is just different and says a team of supposedly authors developed the beverage: “none of which are me.” All humor arises from addressing the public discourse of the Kardashian over any commentary on the subject itself. It makes the viewers who have watched her studies in the law, her ventures in commerce, and every second she was public property aware of what makes the humor work. That knowledge was exploited by the campaign, credited to directed Daniel Sachon at OBB Bolded, that uses that acknowledgement to channel the EDIT campaign as a product for those who need long-lasting concentration without the cost of a traditional energy drink.
UPDATE, based on paraxanthine, which is the byproduct the body creates when metabolizing caffeine, offers a more targeted way to deliver alertness, mental stamina, and balanced energy, said to avoid the ‘jitters, crashes and hyper-stimulation’ often linked to caffeine. One can is 0 sugar, 0 calorie, and contains no flavorings or added coloring. Other ingredients include Alpha GPC as a cognitive enhancer, L-theanine for relaxed focus, and vitamin B12.
Kardashian has stated she tried the product as a new customer in 2023, gave input on flavor and package design, and was brought on as co-founder. She Sure has been quoted as talking about her use of UPDATE personally. The single mother of four and entrepreneur says she often needs to keep going and feels she takes doses of supplies throughout the day.
When she has to follow a gym lesson with a business meeting she drinks it before leaving the house or when she is feeling her day is daunting she takes a dose. This endorsement is now used in the campaigns communication she’s not just a star singing its praises, she’s using it. Retail expansion is already happening. UPDATE is an online and retail product available at Walmart, The Vitamin Shoppe and its own website and will eventually be available at over 14,000 doors and more than 100,000 points of distribution by early fourth quarter. A short term Focus Lab pop-up on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles provided brand enthusiasts with a tangible opportunity to see the theme of a sleek, just a little futuristic aesthetic first hand, following the launch of the campaign.