Sprunk

"If you want all of the taste with none of the waist. try our new improved Diet Sprunk. We replaced the sugar with cancerous neurotoxins — you'll never know the difference!"

- Sprunk on Bleeter

Sprunk (BAWSAQ : SPU) is a brand of soft drink featured in both the 3D Universe and HD Universe of Grand Theft Auto series.

Description
Sprunk is a carbonated lemon-lime beverage claimed in a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas radio commercial to contain "10 times the caffeine and sugar", mixed with mercury, ether, and benzene, and packaged in fragmentation grenade-shaped cans. The company's slogan since Grand Theft Auto IV has been "The Essence of Life".

Sprunk establishments are found in both Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto IV. In San Andreas, players can find a branch office of Sprunk in East Beach, Los Santos, as well as the Home o' Sprunk packaging plant in Montgomery, Red County. In GTA IV, opposite Honkers in Alderney, there is a large Sprunk billboard and an abandoned packaging plant can be found in Tudor, Alderney.

Sprunk vending machines are dotted throughout Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Grand Theft Auto V, from which the player can buy a can of Sprunk for $1, drink its contents to replenish their health, and throw the empty can away (for GTA IV, the player can pick up and throw the can again). A plastic bottle of Sprunk can also be bought from newspaper stands all over the city in GTA IV. Curiously, in GTA IV, Sprunk vending machines sell cans of Orang-O-Tang instead; Sprunk cans themselves can only be obtained from eCola machines. A Sprunk vending machine is also featured in cutscenes in Roman's taxi depot, though it is otherwise inaccessible.

Advertisements have also been featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Manhunt and Manhunt 2. Sprunk is one of the sponsors featured on some Hotring Racer cars in GTA Vice City. The player can download a Sprunk theme for their phone via Vipluxuryringtones.com in GTA IV, and the Sprunk logo can be found on some Benson trucks in the same game. In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, several billboards for Sprunk can be seen, and, in the PSP and iOS ports of the game, it is also one of the three to choose skins for the player's PDA.

In GTA IV, Sprunk is also a sponsor of the Venturas Poker Challenge on Weazel and an extreme base jumping competition on CNT in The Ballad of Gay Tony, where 16 contestants go head-to-head and race to base jump off of certain buildings in Liberty City.

Sprunk returns yet again in Grand Theft Auto V, now playing a more notable role in the game. The player can buy stocks from them on the Bawsaq.com in-game website; A few vehicles (see below) can be obtained in Sprunk liveries, most likely used to promote the drink; Sprunk soda machines also return in GTA V, working the same way as they do in GTA IV.

In addition, "stalking" Sprunk's page on the Lifeinvader's real-life website grants the player a free vending machine order in GTA V, provided the player connects Lifeinvader on the Social Club.

Influence
Sprunk is an obvious parody of. Sprunk co-exists with eCola, a parody of. However, in reality, Sprite is a brand owned by Coca-Cola. In Grand Theft Auto V eCola cans say "Canned under authority of The SPRUNK COMPANY by SPRUNK Enterprises Ltd, LC, USA" meaning eCola is owned by Sprunk.

The Sprunk sign in East Island City is based on a real-life sign for located in New York's.

Sprunk Xtreme seems to be a parody of either variant or the  brand as both Mountain Dew and Sprunk are major sponsors of an action sports tour. The allusion to sperm may itself be a reference to various (false) urban legends connecting to sperm loss.

The name is a play on of "Spunk", a slang term for semen. This is reinforced by the Sprunk motto "The Essence of Life". A synonym for "Essence" is "Substance" so the slogan is most probably referring to the fact that semen is the main substance required for reproduction in mammals.

Sprunk Fuel appears to be based on, baring several similarities on both the logo and can. It also features a different logo style compared to the other Sprunk variants. This new Sprunk text logo reappears later on the Sprunk livery for the Thrax as part of a pattern, but the livery still features the old regular Sprunk logo.

"Cherry Sprunk" is mentioned by Lester Crest in the beginning of the setup mission: Signal Intercepts, in reference to what the data they're stealing for Avon will tell them. This Sprunk flavor is very likely based on Sprite Cherry. ''"it Might just tell us who's buying cherry Sprunk." -Lester Crest''

The Sprunk Company
The Sprunk Company (Sprunk Enterprises Ltd) is the manufacturer and owner of the Sprunk and eCola line of soft drinks, obviously being a parody on. The company is mentioned in small text on the eCola and Sprunk cans, but on the other hand the Orang-O-Tang soft drink features a different style in its packaging and doesn't have the spotted design like the eCola and Sprunk cans has, suggesting its not owned by The Sprunk Company.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Sprunk have a drinks booth at the North Point Mall:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Sprunk have a branch office named "Sprunk Incorporated" in East Beach, Los Santos, as well as a factory named "Home o' Sprunk" in Montgomery, Red County.

Grand Theft Auto IV
Sprunk have a large factory in Alderney.

Website
Sprunk have a website in GTA IV which can be found at www.sprunksoda.com.

The website explains what Sprunk is and what it consists of. The website also has tips, one claiming that sprunk can clean rust off cars, or strip the barnacles off the bottom of a ship. It also has an offer to win a free 2-liter bottle of soda, claiming contestants need to enter their name, address, social security number, credit card number, ATM pin code, their mother's maiden name and their date of birth.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

 * When Carl Johnson buys a can of Sprunk from a vending machine, he drinks it upside down.
 * A Sprunk billboard featuring a short-haired woman can be found on the southern edge of Jefferson, Los Santos (next to the east-west expressway into the commercial heart of Los Santos), with the slogan "A Taste of Things to Come". Following a car chase during "Reuniting the Families" that ends with the gang's car crashing through the billboard, the billboard's slogan, partially cut away by a clean hole created from the crash, now reads "A Taste of _______Come", referring to "cum" (a slang term for semen). The billboard piece can in fact be destroyed before "Reuniting The Families" using any weapon, however the billboard will revert to its pre-Reuniting the Families appearance when going far enough from it.

Grand Theft Auto IV

 * During the commercial for Sprunk Extreme for the Base Jumping, there's a segment where a person is jumping with a Caddy to a Sprunk billboard in Star Junction. This might be a nod to the San Andreas' mission Reuniting the Families, where the Grove Street gang crash their car through a Sprunk billboard. However, in the commercial, the Caddy explodes when trying to crash the billboard.
 * In Bohan Warehouse, boxes and cans of Sprunk with the logo designs used in GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas can be found. This is also found on a refrigerator in TW@ Internet Cafes, if the player walks to the left of the door. The boxes will leak Sprunk soda if shot at.
 * The HD Universe Sprunk logo uses the ITC Stone Informal Std typeface on its logo. The "The Essence of Life" tagline uses the Pump Demi Bold LET typeface but with slightly edited 'S' letters.

Grand Theft Auto V

 * A particularly rare Sprunk vending machine is accessible inside the Pillbox Hill Medical Center, but only after completing the mission Vinewood Souvenirs - Al Di Napoli, which involves a car chase through the hospital. After the mission the hospital interior briefly remains accessible if one uses a cheat like superjump to reenter a broken window. Wandering through the inside one will find a working Sprunk vending machine. This is the only time in the game it can be accessed.