"Drink the Red Liquid From the Sarcophagus" Campaign

Overview

"Drink the Red Liquid From the Sarcophagus" Campaign refers to a viral campaign launched by games developer Innes McKendrick to drink the red liquid found in an opened Egyptian sarcophagus in July of 2018. Though the campaign appears to have been started in jest, it quickly gained thousands of signatures.

Background

On July 19th, 2018, archaeologists in Egypt opened an ancient sarcophagus, discovering a mummified family of three in a pool of foul-smelling red liquid.^[1] The following day, games developer Innes McKendrick started a Change.org^[2] petition titled "let people drink the red liquid from the dark sarcophagus," adding "we need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die." He tweeted a screenshot of the campaign that day, gaining 10,000 retweets and 24,000 likes.^[3]

Developments

Shortly after the petition started, it was picked up by news publications. Metro.co.uk^[4] wrote about the petition the day it was posted. Speaking to Metro, McKendrick said:

‘The discovery of the black sarcophagus in Alexandria sparked interest the world over, and amongst friends was immediately picked up as a symbol of hope. People were given an opportunity they’re often denied in recent times – to picture a brighter, more optimistic future in which the earth is blighted, torn apart and consumed piece by piece at the hands of furious immortal Egyptian gods. The potential to unleash this curse upon ourselves by opening the sarcophagus offered a degree of control over our lives which, in the current political and financial climate, we’re so often denied.
Many felt let down when the dark and extremely cursed sarcophagus was pried open to reveal only skeletons drenched in raw sewage, which is weird because skeletons are inherently pretty awesome. However, I stand true to the hope we were promised, and deeply believe that by consuming the skeleton juice in the form of a carbonated high caffeine energy drink that we can still have the opportunity to enter an era of unending darkness and despair. I’m so glad to see others backing the petition, and sharing in my mission to rapidly bring about the end of all things.’

Vice^[5] also published a piece on the campaign that day. Time^[6] wrote about the campaign and went as far as contacting Egypt's Antiquities Ministry, who said the red liquid is "neither 'juice for mummies that contains an elixir of life' nor is it red mercury but only sewage water." The campaign was also inquired about on /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[7] As of July 24th, 2018, the campaign has over 22,000 signatures.

Search Interest

External References