PC games for more than 40 hours per week). From 2004 through at least 2008, Bawls was featured at the Penny Arcade Expo, which brought the drink "a huge amount of attention". Bawls partnered with GameFly in 2008 to cross-promote each other through mutual discounts. In 2014, the Bawls was still marketed to gamers, including sponsoring QuakeCon 2014 where were drunk. Name In a 1998 interview with CNNfn, Buppert said of the name, "[it] represents a state of mind. Bawls is a very common slang term—to be bold and daring—and that's how we see the product. [...] I think it's very difficult for a consumer to forget a product called Bawls Guarana." In 2002, The Mercury News reported that BAWLS was an abbreviation for Brazilian American Wildlife Society, "intended to promote sustainable uses for the rain forest"; Buppert repeated that story to CNN in 2003. A 2004 article by The Cornell Daily Sun said Buppert was brainstorming to emulate the strong names of existing brands (Flying Tiger, Red Bull), when "Bawls" instead came from a friend's joke of "Why don’t you just call it Balls?" When Gunnerson was asked about the name in 2015, he said, "Bounce like a ball. It gives you enough energy and fuel. That was really the inspiration of it from my understanding. […] Bounce with BAWLS was really our one key tagline for quite some time." Product placement Hobarama and Vivendi Universal Games made a deal in 2002 for cross-promotion. Bawls received product placement as a game mechanic in the 2002 video game, Run Like Hell: protagonist Nick Conner drinks Bawls from vending machines to boost his health. In exchange, cases of Bawls bore advertisements for the game. In the 2004 video game, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a shakeup in the management of Interplay Entertainment led to the replacement of the Fallout series' iconic Nuka-Cola with the real-world Bawls for the franchise's first outing on consoles. The swap was not well-received by fans. Bawls has also been featured in TV shows and films, including The Big Bang Theory, The Hangover, and Silicon Valley. Sponsorships In 2002, the soda was the official soft drink of the Cyberathlete Professional League. Bawls has also been the official energy drink for the National Professional Paintball League (in 2004 & 2006), Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (2008), and Olympus Fashion Week. Reception In 1998, after Bawls was positively reviewed by Stephen Heaslip