Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid®

Macabre aphorism that admonishes the listener to be careful about believing in nonsensical business plans, “spin,” marketing “hype” or internal marketing, particularly that originating from within their own organization or from associates or partners. The phrase refers to the 1978 mass suicide and massacre of members of a cult led by a Rev. Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. The members of the People’s Temple committed suicide by allegedly drinking cups of the fruit-flavored beverage Kool-Aid®, that had been laced with cyanide, though it has been suggested (perhaps by public relations for Kool-Aid?) that a competing product, Flav-R-Aid®, was in fact the beverage in question.

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