ECola

"The world leader in the manufacture and marketing of sugary caffeinated beverages that turn 8-year-olds into manic fatsos."

- Description at LCN.com.

eCola is a brand of soft drinks owned by The Sprunk Company, featured in both the 3D Universe and HD Universe of the Grand Theft Auto series. The player can buy stocks from them on the Lcn-exchange.com website in Grand Theft Auto V.

3D Universe
The eCola name first appears in GTA Vice City Stories in the form of red non-interactive Vending Machines scattered throughout Vice City.

Grand Theft Auto IV
The drink reappears in Grand Theft Auto IV, where eCola vending machines, like those of Sprunk, may be used by the player to replenish their health - curiously, they only dispense cans of Orang-O-Tang.

There is an eCola store on the corner of Exeter Avenue and Uranium Street, East Holland, Algonquin and on Beaumont Avenue near the intersection of Guantanamo Avenue in Industrial. The player can also purchase an eCola background for Niko's Whiz Cellphone via Vipluxuryringtones.com. Yankee trucks may appear with an all-red eCola livery, complete with eCola logos on the sides.

Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online
In Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, the player can purchase and drink eCola cans that can be bought from convenience stores and vending machines. There is also a version of eCola known as eCola Light, as seen in GTA V on soda dispensers in convenience stores.

eCola is mentioned, according to a website in GTA V, to have been founded in the late 19th century, and to have used cocaine as an ingredient before substituting this with sugar. This mirrors the history of Coca-Cola, which was founded in the late 19th century (1886) and used to contain cocaine, as it was originally intended as a medicinal product.

A Radio Mirror Park station ID mentions that it is sponsored by eCola, which is now available in retro 1950s-style bottles.

eCola appears to be the main sponsor of the Triathlons as all start and finish arches are eCola branded.

Influence
The brand name is a play on both the and the. The company's slogan states that the drink is "Deliciously infectious!" which could suggest that the soft drink is contaminated, or more likely, that it is highly addictive, a reference to Coca Cola once containing cocaine.

It is also a possible reference to the, a time in which digital computer technology radically changed how information was being developed and shared in the late 20th century. It is also largely affiliated to the dawn of the Internet. During these years, Rockstar Games was also gaining notoriety for its highly controversial and unconventional franchise of Grand Theft Auto games. It was also a time of entrepreneurial companies frequently using the lowercase letter "e" as a shorthand predecessor to the names of their products and/or company names. The most prominent example of this trend is the term "email" which is short for "electronic mail".

The color and style of the eCola logo is an obvious caricature of 's logo. However, it does share some basic similarities with the and  logos as well. The eCola Light variant is also based on either or.

Trivia

 * The eCola glass bottles in the vending machines bear resemblances to older glass bottles.
 * A Las Venturas prostitute in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will sometimes ask "Have you ever tried eCola?" if she is talking to a pedestrian, despite eCola not appearing in the game.
 * However, eCola does appear in the Definitive Edition.
 * eCola sponsors East Los FM 106.2 as well as Bishop's Chicken.
 * Non-interactive eCola soda machines are added to the Washington Beach Police Station, North Point Mall, and other locations in the Definitive Edition of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.