Amazon has hit back at a documentary called "Unleashed" in which drinks allegedly containing the urine of the company's delivery drivers were sold on the platform. Unleashed even achieved the #1 best-selling beverage category in the bitter lemon category. Journalist, film-maker and prankster Oobah Butler got a job at an Amazon fulfillment center in Coventry as part of a UK Channel 4 documentary. He used hidden cameras to record employee complaints about working conditions, physical ailments caused by demands, and near-constant surveillance.
Oobah was recognized after just three days of working at the warehouse, prompting him to interview the delivery driver. They told him drivers were being forced to urinate in bottles as they were penalized for slow deliveries because they didn't have time to stop for the toilet.
This is certainly not the first time we've heard of Amazon drivers taking this approach. In 2021, a confrontation between Congressman Mark Pocan and Amazon executives brought this to light, and several current and former employees confirmed that this happened. Amazon previously denied that its employees urinated in bottles, but later claimed it was talking about warehouse workers and acknowledged that some drivers did so.
Oobah was told the driver was penalized for returning the truck to a warehouse with bottles filled with urine, but Amazon denies this. To avoid penalties, drivers dump bottles on the side of the road. Butler searched near the Amazon warehouse and found bottles filled with urine.
Butler then decided to create a prank on "Release," a drink filled with Amazon driver urine and sell it on Amazon's store. The process was surprisingly simple, he told Wired. "I thought food and beverage licensing would prevent me from listing it, so I started using it in the refillable pump dispenser category. The algorithm then moved it to beverages," he said.
“At the heart of ReleaseEnergy’s story is its commitment to supporting Amazon delivery drivers, the unsung heroes who face tremendous pressure to deliver on extremely demanding schedules,” Release’s product description states. "These drivers face extremely tight deadlines and find themselves trapped in a relentless race against time, often sacrificing their own needs to ensure packages reach their destination. Unleashed Energy was born out of the desperation and determination of those Amazon delivery drivers who dared to physically move, and over the course of their grueling shifts found themselves faced with a choice between fulfilling their contractual obligations and finding a bathroom. Each Unleashed Energy drink is composed entirely of their urine..."
Butler said he got a group of friends to buy "Release," pushing it to the top of the "bitter lemon" category. Although he never sold any product to real customers and has now been removed from the market, about ten real customers have tried to buy a bottle.
The documentary aims to draw attention to the working conditions of Amazon employees and the company's impact on society. Unsurprisingly, Amazon took offense to the sale of urine, calling it "rude" and emphasizing that it has "industry-leading tools to prevent truly unsafe products from being marketed."
Elsewhere in the documentary, Butler has his 4- and 6-year-old nieces buy knives, saws, and rat poison and have them delivered to their front doors (and Amazon lockers) using Alexa voice control, and there's also a segment on how Amazon manages to avoid paying taxes.
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