NEW YORK (AP) – A coffee with an edgy name and made by a small business is getting a commercial in Super Bowl 50.
Death Wish Coffee Co. won a competition held by software maker Intuit for a 30-second spot during the third quarter of the big game on Feb. 7. The Round Lake, New York, company beat more than 15,000 other small businesses in voting by the public and Intuit employees.
Death Wish was founded in 2012 by Mike Brown, who owns a coffee house in Saratoga Springs, New York, and wanted to find a strong, highly-caffeinated brew. Packaged in a black bag with a skull and bones label, the coffee, a blend that Brown created, is sold in a handful of stores and online. Death Wish currently sells about 1,000 pounds a day, a number expected to increase considerably after the Super Bowl spot runs.
Brown recently hired two employees to prepare for a jump in business, giving him a staff of 12.
“If even half a percent of the people who watch the commercial decide to buy a bag and give it a try, and 90 percent of them recommend it to others, we could have some amazing growth in the future,” he said.