I kind of already mentioned that products through effective marketing do have the ability to idealize and embellish certain ideologies (see: this post). So what happens when a taboo topic like drugs is directly named as an edible product?

Let’s take a look at Redux Beverages’ star product: Cocaine. Cocaine is just your average high-caffeine energy drink – similar to Monster and Red Bull – except that it contains three times more caffeine. Cocaine can even be consumed as an energy supplement (in pill form, of course). For the short time it was found in convenience stores, many complaints were directed towards the marketing campaign, suggesting that “Cocaine glamorizes and legitimises the illegal drug cocaine”.

While the manufacturers believe that their consumers are smart enough to understand that Cocaine does, in fact, not contain any real trace of the drug, Max Barry hints in his blog that those selling this product also underestimate the cleverness of their consumers.

And it occurred to me that whenever I hear a company telling their customers how smart they are, it seems they’re selling a stupid product. […] According to its web site, the company changed its name “to better clarify its identity[.]” That’s good to know. I’d thought they did it just so people wouldn’t realize they were the same pack of lying, murderous bastards. – Max Barry

And if Barry is correct, does it matter that Redux Beverages then rebranded and renamed this energy drink, ‘No Name’ in regards to the many complaints and the FDA’s decision to pull it off the market? Or will the intelligent customers “realize that they were the same pack of lying, murderous bastards”?