Liquid Death's former VP of Cult Indoctrination joins SuperDebate
Stephen "Stix" Nilsen, the brand architect who helped turn canned water into a billion-dollar cult following, joins SuperDebate's Advisory Board to lead brand and cultural positioning.
Liquid Death started out selling water. Canned water, with death-metal branding from famed director, animator, and illustrator Will Carsola. It became one of the most talked-about brands in America, a billion-dollar cult following built around the most ordinary thing on earth.
That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of people like Stephen Nilsen, one of the marketing minds behind its rise.
Today, he's joining SuperDebate's Advisory Board.
I build brands that don't just sell. They connect with culture and dominate the conversation, category, and consumers' loyalty.
— Stephen Nilsen
He builds movements, not campaigns
Stephen goes by STIX to the people who know him. He's a cultural brand architect. The short version: he finds the subcultures a brand could belong to, and earns it a place there that money can't buy.
He did it at Red Bull as a Sports Marketing Manager across action sports and culture, then spent nearly a decade helping resuscitate Pabst Blue Ribbon, making a faded beer cool on purpose through thousands of grassroots events and activations around major moments like X Games, Coachella, SXSW, Art Basel, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and New York Fashion Week. Then at Liquid Death, he led the Lifestyle Marketing team that helped turn canned beverages into a cultural icon valued at $1.4 billion.
Red Bull · Pabst Blue Ribbon · Liquid Death
Why this matters for debate
Debate already has the substance. The arguments are real, the stakes are real, and changing someone's mind in real time is genuinely hard to do. What it has never had is the culture around it: clubs people are proud to belong to, events worth showing up for, a sense that this is a scene and not just a school activity.
That's what Stephen has spent his career building. At Red Bull, Pabst, and Liquid Death, his job was to earn a brand a real place in the culture, the kind of loyalty that, as he puts it, "can't be paid for." He earned it not with advertising, but by building things people genuinely wanted to be part of.
We're opening 20 clubs in 2026. Stephen's role is to shape how they feel and why someone shows up the first time, so that competitive, face-to-face debate reads as something you want to be part of, not a class you have to take.
I crave ambitious brands that know true movements are not built overnight. They demand bold thinking, fearless execution, and the vision I deliver with global reach, boundless creativity, and a record of driving sales and cultural relevance.
— Stephen Nilsen
Welcome to the board, Stephen.
