Sacrament, Calif. – The Gatorade Company reached a settlement with the California Department of Justice for allegedly violating consumer protection laws by making disparaging statements about water in a promotional mobile video game.
According to the California DOJ, a complaint filed by the California Attorney General alleged Gatorade used a promotional video game titled “Bolt!” to inaccurately and negatively depict water as harmful to athletic performance.
“Bolt!” features a play system where users control a cartoon version of Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt.
The character–on an endless race to recover coins stolen by pirates–runs faster when the user touches a Gatorade icon, but runs slower when the user touches a water icon.
The game’s tutorial urged gamers to “Keep your performance level high by avoiding water.”
“Making misleading statements is a violation of California law. But making misleading statements aimed at our children is beyond unlawful, it’s morally wrong and a betrayal of trust. It’s what causes consumers to lose faith in the products they buy,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra . “Today’s settlement should make clear that the California Department of Justice will pursue false advertisers and hold them accountable.”
As part of the settlement, Gatorade will pay $300,000, of which $120,000 will be used to fund research or education on water consumption for youth.
Gatorade is also prohibited from depicting water in a negative way.
“Bolt!” is no longer available for download via mainstream platforms.
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