Sixty-four-year-old Ian McLean knows you better than you know yourself.

As a Bay Area marketing expert and self-described cultural observer, that’s probably his most important job. And, whether you like it or not, he’s very, very good at it.

Over the years, his modest design firm in Walnut Creek has worked on branding for the likes of Jarritos and Pabst Blue Ribbon, drinks that seem to have an omniscient presence in liquor stores and supermarkets. Normally, he doesn’t have complicated feelings about his creations. After all, it’s his duty to convince you to buy things you didn’t know you needed. But then, one day back in the early 2010s, something unusual happened: He felt guilty.

It all took place when a friend of McLean’s teenage daughter pulled him aside and asked if he would meet her brother, who described himself as a fan of one of McLean’s most well-known products. He agreed and went over to his room. When the creative director stepped inside, he was in disbelief. It was “a shrine to Monster,” he told SFGATE.

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Posters and cans of the energy drink were everywhere, but this girl’s brother still wanted to show McLean one more piece of memorabilia. He then proceeded to open his shirt, revealing an enormous “M” tattoo scrawled on his chest. It was also backward, but that’s because he had done it himself. He was maybe 16.

“It’s beyond brand love,” McLean said. “It’s brand psychosis.”

“People who tattoo it on their face? They’ve got bigger issues,” he added.

One of the most popular energy drinks in the U.S., second only to Redbull, the iconic 16-ounce beverage has created such fervor that plenty of other people have gotten the cans or logo tattooed on their bodies over the years, birthing memes and online subcultures that have developed a life of their own. But McLean, the Bay Area marketing professional who invented its famous logo, had no idea he would open the floodgates for consumer pandemonium. Though he was rarely acknowledged for it, his audacious design — and vision for the brand — helped transform Monster Energy into the behemoth that it is today.

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Unbeknownst to many, Monster’s true origin story doesn’t begin in a muddy motocross arena but in the sun-lit corners of 1930s Hollywood. That’s because it was manufactured by Hansen’s, a new-age juice company that once sold organic sodas to health-conscious families in Southern California.

Hansen’s was founded in Los Angeles in 1935 by Hubert Hansen, a savvy businessman with a thriving operation selling fresh juices at movie lots. In 1946, it opened a production plant on Juanita Avenue, and Tim Hansen, Hubert’s grandson, later added a natural soda line. However, the company struggled to find its footing in the decades that followed and filed for bankruptcy in the late 1980s.

Food........

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