Products like this don't just appear in gas station coolers by themselves, they would have started by identifying a demographic first and then building a product specifically targeted to that audience. They decided to target younger-skewing men, and so they made an energy drink that's neon green and called it "Monster". If they had decided to target over-60 women they would have designed the product much differently.

This isn't just a reactive profile of who they think is buying the product, it's the blueprint for the product.

And regardless, I would tend to believe that a highly successful, very pervasive consumer product has at least some fucking clue who their customers are, unlike the random dude hacking their site who appears to think he’s an expert in everything because he understands some tech.

Not that HN would know anything about that.