Cocaine Energy Drink
Date: 2007
Region: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Commercial Advertising
Artist: James Thomas Kirby
Confronting Bodies: U.S. Food and Drug Administation, the NAACP, The Attorney General of Texas (Greg Abbott), The Attorney General of Connecticut (Ricjard Blumenthal), The Attorney General of Illinois (Lisa Madigan), The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, EBay, and many U.S. School Districts.
Dates of Action: April and May 2007
Location: Throughout the United States of America
Description of Artwork: Cocaine Energy Drink sports a red can that is 8.4 ounces. It has the word Cocaine on the front of the can written in a font that resembles chalk.
The Incident: The FDA raided our offices on Feb 14th, 2007. The FDA issued a warning letter to us April 4th, 2007. The drink was pulled from store shelves.
Results of Incident: Fearing the threat of civil fines and criminal jail time, we changed the name of the drink, marketing it as No Name until we won the right to use the name through the legal process. The product is again being marketed as Cocaine and contains the warning label: "WARNING: This message is for the people who are too stupid to recognize the obvious. This product does not contain cocaine. This product is not intended to be an alternative to an illicit street drug, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot."
Source: James Thomas Kirby, founder of Redux Beverages and inventor of the product; Wikipedia.