My current energy drink of choice is Monster Energy Pacific Punch, which, like, that there is a hyperreal fucking object. When I say the words 'Pacific Punch' to you, what actual flavors come to mind? Pineapple, surely, right? Maybe coconut? You could list off some other tropical fruit: Mangos, kiwi, pitaya, etc. Like you think of, you know, a non-alcoholic take on a tiki drink.
The dominant flavor in Pacific Punch is cherry. It has maybe a hint of peach in there too? It mostly tastes of stone fruit. Just absolutely no fucking relationship between what it tastes like and how it's marketed. Now, I happen to really like the taste of artificial cherry flavoring, so I drink the stuff, but it is very funny to me.
They could have called it 'Cherry Pie', or something, right? They could have called it 'Sakura Smash' or whatever. But somewhere deep in the bowels of Monster's marketing department someone just made the call that actually putting something on the can that induces an observer to envision the contents of the can semi-accurately wasn't in the cards on this one.
Like most Monster flavors either accurately advertise what they contain (Dragon Ice Tea tastes like ice tea, or an approximation thereof) OR they are so abstract they make no real promises. Pacific Punch as a name is just connected enough to some kind of semantics of flavor that it's surprising when you take a sip and learn that it's the Cherry Coke of Monster.