Twin Cities Reader September 25, 1996

Lushes Help Lower Deficit

The federal government's announcement earlier this week that the United States' trade deficit is larger than ever may not have knocked anyone off his or her barstool, but a local company has taken it upon itself to see that drinkers the world over soon will be able to raise a glass and reduce our nation's export-import imbalance at the same time.

St. Paul-based LifeStyle Marketing is "trying to balance the trade deficit 30 days after reaching an agreement with a European company to market up to one million patented hangover pills a week."

Thomas Yankovec, president of LifeStyle, says the pills, known as Sob'r-K in the United States, will be marketed through MPM Holding Company of Holland under the Toxorb. Yankovec says that while most hangover pills are little more than placebos, Sob'r-K "actually makes you feel better."

"It's the only hangover pill with a money-back guarantee and the only one that's patented," he says. "It's an all-natural product. You could eat 10 pounds of it with no adverse effect." (Gee does that mean we could drink 900 beers first?)

Yankovec rejects the notion that a product which dampens the consequences of drinking could encourage abuse. "our target market is people who are going out to have a good time, having a few drinks, and don't want to have side effects the next day, "he says.

The pills even has the endorsement of Dr. James Schaefer, former head of the University of Minnesota's Drug and Alcohol Department and a man LifeStyle calls the "Indiana Jones of Taverns."

--Andrew Putz