Sorry to detour from this match but can someone tell me more about Clean Cause, the yerba mate the Berrics is promoting/has a partnership with? I saw that they did a feature with a rider recently and they have tagged it in a bunch of their videos.
From the website, I see that the way they market themselves is "to support individuals in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. 50% of profits fund sober living scholarships, intended to bridge the critical gap between rehab & reintegration...Clean Cause has created a sustainable source of funding for addiction recovery efforts. These sober living scholarships afford people coming out of rehab, homelessness, or incarceration the opportunity to focus on establishing a recovery routine and finding employment. " In the FAQ, they state "We do not donate financially to organizations or charities, but grant our sober living scholarships on an individual basis via our online scholarship application."
On one hand, I could give the benefit of the doubt and laud the goal of giving individuals in recover help during a serious housing crunch. Getting help making rent in a private group home would be a fine thing. A scholarship could provide first and last month's rent/fees/security (something that is a barrier to many folks) and lessen the burden while trying to establish a permanent residence for job applications, etc.
On the other hand, I could be pessimistic, see this as another charity angle the berrics runs for its products. It's one thing to sell your stuff by marketing around helping trees but a marketing around people is something else. Additionally, the application is a little weird as (among other things) they discuss collecting info for statistical analysis, stating contact info will not be sold but I guess everything else is fair game. (I don't imagine a yerba mate company has a lot of time to be doing statistical analysis on addiction but I could be wrong.) There's also the other uneasy points of them requiring AA. Or the Berrics past partnerships with alcohol companies, whether it be bryte x angry orchard or koston with st archer. (Oddly enough Bryte has done a collabo with both angry orchard and Clean Cause this past year.)
I'm ignorant on some of intricacies of sober living, so I was wondering what folks thoughts on this is? I'm not necessarily questioning dude giving folks money for rent; but I am a little weary of the marketing, questioning the efficacy of scholarships, and, of course, sus of the Berrics involvement in this.
Just realize I wrote a book. TLDR: Berrics selling yerba mate that markets itself as a force of good helping those in recovery: Yay or nay?
https://cleancause.com/blogs/press/theberrics-and-cleancause-team-up-to-fight-addictionhttp://www.ladowntownnews.com/business/the-berrics-clean-cause-support-addiction-therapy/article_addc7122-4479-11eb-9cb7-8761cebb6ba5.htmlEdit: Seems like the marketing dude/one of the people involved with Clean Cause in those articles also is highly associated with Sway, the energy drink the Berrics pushes (and sponsors Mamaskate). Oh and alcoholic beverages. Lots of alcoholic beverages.
https://www.elegance-brands.com/brands/Edit edit: And it seems like it's not just the marketing dude. The Berrics trumpets their relationship with Elegance brands:
https://www.bevnet.com/news/2021/sway-energy-drink-and-the-berrics-announce-new-partnership/ Wonder if you can Elegance Vodka next to your Clean Cause?