Filmmaker sells Amazon drivers’ urine as an energy drink – here’s what’s behind it

Oobah Butler is known for his entertaining and funny videos. He became famous when he decided to open London’s best-rated (fake) restaurant in his garden in 2018. In his latest report for the British broadcaster Channel 4, he tackles a more serious subject, but uses the same humorous approach.

He noticed that there were many plastic bottles – filled with urine – on the side of the road in front of Amazon delivery centers. In the report ‘The Great Amazon Heist’ he investigates this and finds that Amazon drivers have such a tight delivery schedule that toilet breaks are virtually impossible. So they urinate in bottles. A “humiliating” act, says one of the drivers interviewed.

They have to deliver a new package every three minutes. If you take breaks, you will fall behind your schedule. This leads to overtime or warnings, say several drivers from different countries.

To draw attention to these injustices, Butler comes up with an idea: he collects all the urine bottles he finds on the street and uses them to create a new product. An energy drink called Release, which consists only of the collected urine.

This will be the bestseller on Amazon in the Bitter Lemon category. After just twelve hours, Butler achieved this goal thanks to his friends. They ordered the drink en masse and gave it positive reviews – without ever receiving or drinking a bottle. Butler told Business Insider that he estimates about 10 actual customers tried to buy the drink.

Amazon has since removed Release from their store.

The major company has responded to Butler’s marketing stunt, describing it as “primitive.” Amazon also says the documentary “paints a deeply distorted picture of the company.” “Amazon cares about the well-being of its drivers and safety is our top priority.”

A contradiction to the scandal on the same subject from two years ago. The company admitted at the time that urinating in bottles was an “inhumane working condition.” Amazon apologized for previously lying about these circumstances. However, the apology was only addressed to the MP who stood up for the workers and not to the MPs themselves. Apparently nothing has changed in working conditions since then.

Butler accuses Amazon of other things in the report and has his nieces (who are between four and six years old) order knives, rat poison and garden saws. Thanks to Alexa, this works without any age verification.

None of Butler’s allegations are new. Amazon has been repeatedly accused of inhumane working conditions, tax fraud and offering dangerous and counterfeit products. However, in his report, Butler offers a very accessible, ‘practical’ approach to the subject.

The report is currently only shown on British television and is not available here. If you have a VPN, you can watch “The Great Amazon Heist” here. A short version is available on YouTube:

(cmu)