Poppi vs. Olipop: What Brands Can Learn About Social Media Blowback

Everyone seems to be picking a side in the whole Poppi versus Olipop controversy. But as young women who fall right into these brands’ target audience and as crisis management consultants specializing in digital, we’re not here to argue over which probiotic soda is superior. Instead, we’re breaking down where Poppi might’ve gone wrong – or did they?

Let’s back it up. The drama kicked off Super Bowl weekend when Poppi decided to go big with a flashy influencer campaign. They sent 32 influencers their own Poppi vending machines for their game-day parties. The move was intended to position Poppi as the must-have drink for the Super Bowl, and on paper, it made sense. But instead of winning over the internet like they planned, Poppi found itself at the center of significant backlash for being out of touch with their consumers.

When Poppi’s biggest direct competitor, Olipop, jumped into the fray, it only got worse. Their social media team commented on videos regarding Poppi’s vending machine stunt, including one comment that claimed, “For the record, those machines cost $25K each lol” – only adding fuel to the fire.

Now, the Internet PR/marketing experts have all told you that this could have been avoided if Poppi just would’ve known their audience better and sent these vending machines to teachers lounges, fire departments, or colleges – places where everyday people could’ve engaged with the brand. But let’s step into Poppi’s marketing team’s shoes for a second. They have a LONG history of influencer marketing and boast celebrity investors like Post Malone, Kyle Jenner, and Hailey Bieber. Have we forgotten Poppi’s Coachella campaign and the massive house the brand got for influencer Alix Earle and her friends to stay at during the festival so they could market the launch of their new lemon-lime flavor? Now THAT was peak extravagance shoved into the face of the consumer, and there wasn’t really pushback from Poppi’s consumers. With a history like that, how could Poppi have known that it would be vending machines for influencer Super Bowl parties that would blow up in their face?

They couldn’t have. The thing about a crisis, especially in today’s age of instant scandal, is that you truly cannot see around every corner and anticipate the way that people will react to everything. When you’re dealing with something like this, you have to remember that people are people. They’re irrational – especially on the internet. They’ll say one thing, really mean it, and then do the exact opposite.

The vending machines were the inciting incident, as they say in the TV and film world. Let’s take a look at the fallout.

People immediately took to social media to voice their frustrations. For Poppi, the main criticisms centered around the perception that they were prioritizing influencers over their actual customers. Many felt that Poppi’s marketing was tone-deaf, with some calling it out as a desperate attempt to go viral rather than a genuine engagement with their audience. Others highlighted the significant contrast between Poppi’s flashy influencer campaigns and Olipop’s more grassroots, community-driven approach. So really by default, Olipop was praised for appearing more authentic and accessible, especially after they took the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and comment on Poppi’s vending machine stunt.

This is where the backlash really started to snowball. While influencers and everyday consumers continued to weigh in on the debate, Olipop decided to escalate things with what we call “competitive offense” here at Dezenhall. Commenting under a now-viral video, the Olipop TikTok account claimed that each vending machine cost $25,000, further fueling the outrage that boiled down to: Poppi doesn’t care about their customers – just making more money. Props to Olipop (one of Poppi’s motivated adversaries) for seizing the opportunity to extend the lifecycle of their competitor’s crisis.

This is where it seemed to take a hard left for Poppi when it likely could have blown over in a couple of days. Poppi’s CEO, Allison Ellsworth, took to TikTok fully in defense mode, saying that they didn’t spend nearly that on the vending machines and ultimately attempting to set the record straight. But in crisis management, we often say that crisis is containment – the opposite of a PR campaign. Instead of playing marketplace defense, which is a strategic operational and communications approach that allows an organization to protect its market share by preempting and rebutting third-party attacks that threaten its reputation, Poppi’s response felt more like damage control, only pushing more customers toward Olipop.

What could’ve been a contained incident blew up into probably one of the biggest reputational crises of 2025, second only, so far, to the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal drama. 

Now for some action items. When your organization or brand comes under attack (because yes, this is a when, not an if situation for every company), remember that marketplace defense is your best offense. And if you decide to go on a PR campaign to clear your name and fix your reputation, we’re looking at you, Karla Sofía Gascón, you WILL step in it, and you WILL make it worse. And there could potentially be long-term effects to your reputation and bottom line.

If we were working with Poppi when this occurred, here are a few things we would’ve advised them to do:

1. Immediate Containment – Acknowledge concerns without over-explaining or fueling the discourse. Over-explaining further fuels the news cycle and leads to more mistakes.

2. Redirect the Narrative – Instead of playing defense against Olipop’s comments, which in turn validated the premise of their competitor’s claims, shift the focus to how Poppi engages with all customers, not just influencers.

3. Lean Into Real Fans – Spotlight everyday consumers who genuinely love the product, creating organic advocacy rather than relying solely on influencers.

For a lot of consumer brands, a crisis striking is inevitable. While our best piece of advice is to fully vet and think through any marketing or other brand activations before you do them, it is important to understand it is your response strategy that will determine how much market share you lose.