Liquid Death and Garage Beer have turned growing frustration with artificial-intelligence infrastructure into an intentionally outrageous advertising stunt. In a 90-second campaign called “We want your pee”, NFL player Jason Kelce asks beer drinkers to collect their urine and send it to a local AI data centre.
The video opens with Kelce filling a mason jar in a bathroom while claiming that AI data centres waste millions of gallons of water. His proposed answer is simple: “We want your pee, to cool these data centers.” A Liquid Death mascot and an increasingly large crowd then join him in a song built around that refrain. The escalating gag includes people carrying urine containers, collecting more from passing eagles and one participant drinking his own output because it resembles Garage Beer.
The campaign sits comfortably alongside Liquid Death’s long history of attention-seeking promotions. Since launching in 2019, the canned-water company has released a tea-flavoured can called Dead Billionaire, after its original name, Armless Palmer, led to a lawsuit from the Arizona Beverage Company. It has also produced a death-metal album using lyrics drawn from customer hate mail and created an in-universe sponsorship for the dystopian Running Man game show in the recent film remake.
The stunt also accompanies Liquid Death’s launch of energy drinks under its own brand. Garage Beer is an independent lite-beer company whose largest investors are Travis and Jason Kelce. It has been described as the fastest-growing lite lager in the United States and is now sold in Red Robin restaurants.
Why AI data-centre water use is in the spotlight
Data-centre operators say they have improved water efficiency, though critics argue that some of those claims function as PR fluff. A report recently reported in the UK said available water supplies could not meet government plans for data-centre expansion. Reuters reports that data centres used 4.5 trillion litres of water worldwide in 2025.
Water is only one part of the criticism. Data centres also consume enormous amounts of electricity, while demand for components has contributed to technology shortages and higher costs. The wider AI boom has additionally helped inflate a financial bubble, all to support predictive-text systems.
For more context on the technology and hardware issues surrounding the wider gaming industry, explore RETROCADE’s arcade news and arcade industry videos.
Liquid Death has made the joke tangible by offering an $18 lidded glass container designed for collecting and sending urine to data centres. It is currently sold out.
A knowingly hypocritical campaign
This remains an advertising campaign, and its environmental criticism is difficult to separate from Liquid Death’s own record. In 2022, the company sold NFTs despite the environmental concerns associated with cryptocurrency, as Liquid Death was merrily selling NFTs.
That contradiction is part of what makes the commercial revealing. Pairing a well-known sports personality with a deliberately disgusting proposal suggests the brands believe their audiences are receptive to open hostility towards AI data centres. Whether viewers see it as clever satire or a thirsty publicity stunt, the campaign reflects a clear shift in public sentiment around the trillion-dollar generative-AI industry.
If the spectacle inspires a different kind of hands-on technology project, RETROCADE’s DIY arcade kits and arcade parts offer a considerably less unpleasant way to build gaming hardware.
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