Truly a stupid idea

When recently seeing The Nephs I felt my throat get a little dry. Must have been all the dust. When I went in search of refreshment I was surprised to see what was being advertised on the bar runner: alcoholic sparkling water. 

Truly Hard Seltzer if you were wondering which particular alcoholic sparkling water. No, I'd never heard of it either. 

Hard seltzer's grew massively in the USA and were widely expected to do the same here but it just hasn't happened. Molson Coors spent millions installing a hard seltzer canning line at their Burton brewery to package Three Fold (and no, that's another one I'd never heard of). I have looked out for hard seltzers in supermarkets and have spotted White Claw but don't think I've seen any others the wild. 

A big problem I see for hard seltzers over here is it just sounds a bit rubbish. We don't use "hard" to mean "contains alcohol" and the only time use use "seltzer" is when it has "alka-" in front of it and is used to cure hangovers. If I had a product that was basically fizzy water with added alcohol I'd go out of my way not to describe it like that. As Truly have had to explain on their own bar runners that the drink is alcoholic sparkling water I think they're not only on the back foot but fighting a losing battle from the start. "Do you fancy an alcoholic water?" "I'd rather have a beer if it's all the same to you thanks"