Scrape TV Home Scrapeipedia The Town of LaRue Community Forum (new) Scrape Store (coming soon)

Scrape TV Humour

Scrape TV News

Scrape TV On the Air

NEWS > BUSINESS > KOOL-AID PLANS CELEBRATIONS FOR THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF JONESTOWN MASSACRE

KOOL-AID PLANS CELEBRATIONS FOR THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF JONESTOWN MASSACRE

November 9 2008

Chicago, IL – While Kool-Aid has been a staple in most American households for decades, the greatest claim to fame that the drink has ever had is almost its most notorious. For the first time the company has decided to embrace that notoriety with a thirtieth anniversary Jonestown edition of the pre-packaged drink.

November 18, 1978 was the day when over 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced grape Kool-Aid. That event led to the drink entering into the cultural lexicon in a whole new way with the phrase ‘drink the Kool-Aid’.

“That was a horrible day and a horrible tragedy that is still beyond belief even thirty years later, but we have made a decision to embrace the past no matter how horrible it might be to allow for healing, and sales of course,” said a spokesperson for the company. “We will be donating a portion of all proceeds to the families of the victims of the tragedy and want to ensure that this will be done in the most, excuse the pun, tasteful way possible. We feel it’s important to embrace the past and there is no better way to do that than through marketing.”

The company will repackage the drink crystals with ‘collectible’ portraits of the Jonestown dead, replacing the normally ubiquitous Kool-Aid man. Packaging with cult leader Jones will be available in limited numbers. The packaging will also include facts about the mass suicide, discussions of the religious philosophies of the group, and information on how to escape cults.

“We not only want to people to have fun with our product, but we want them to learn a little too. It would be irresponsible of us to just feed kids with sugar and not give something back to them. This enables us to do both,” continued the spokesperson. “This packaging will be available for a limited time so people should make sure they run out make their purchases right away, especially if you want to collect all the packages.”

Critics have already lashed out at the company, claiming that the company is exploiting the tragedy for financial gain, something they and their parent company Kraft Foods Inc. readily admit to doing. The potential controversy has not hindered the company’s plans.

“It’s always a tricky move when you do something edgy like this. I’m not sure why exactly they felt the need to be edgy, but obviously they looked at the books and decided they needed to do something new,” said Scrape TV business analyst Ken Green. “Many companies are in tough right now and a lot of them are trying new things to keep customers. I wouldn’t even hazard a guess as to how this one might go, but we will see. It’s not so much the taste issue, it’s the recognition factor. How many people actually remember the massacre anymore except in relation to the drink the Kool-Aid line? Not many I’d guess.”

Parent company Kraft has also said that they are looking at this as a test and that if successful would implement similar programs for other products.

“We’re looking into all kinds of products to see what the possible growth areas are,” said a spokesperson for Kraft. “If this is a hit there’s no end to the international tragedies that would be suitable for exploitation. In these tough economic times we need to think outside the box, or package as it were.”  

William Ashford, Business Correspondent

NEWS > BUSINESS > KOOL-AID PLANS CELEBRATIONS FOR THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF JONESTOWN MASSACRE