Well, so are Kleenex® and Xerox®. I guess I meant that kool-aid is now common enough in our American vernacular that it’s the generic description of all of the powdered beverage mixes that are out there. Wait a minute – I know what’s going on here: Walloon, you’re not one of those Kool-Aid® hired guns come in here to defend your trademark, are you. 
Just to dispel something I’ve been wondering about for a while, is there any chance this expression started out as a reference to Ken Kesey’s acid tests?
And don’t forget “aspirin”, which was a trademark of the Bayer company for years, and I believe still is in Canada.
Your explanation of what “drink the Kool-Aid” means is accurate, but I don’t think this is a good summary of what happened at Jonestown. The people who drank the stuff knew they were going to die, and they were under threat. And I think some non-compliers were shot, too. Jones also killed himself. It’s not that Jones took advantage of them, it’s that he was insane and they followed him over the edge.
That article is about a different documentary; one that was given limited release in theaters and then will be on PBS as part of the “American Experience” series next year. I haven’t seen that one yet.
It’s not altogether clear, in that article, whether the author got his Flavor-Aid information from the documentary or from some other source (for instance, the Kool-Aid website’s FAQ section).
Oh, Yeaaah!
You’re right. Thanks for pointing that out.
Of course, the analogy still works just fine. To say someone is “drinking the Kool-Aid/Flavor-Aid” means you’re following [insert name of hated politician] over the edge, and if you give him power he just might shoot those who resist.
Grape Kool Aid is poison?!
Why, of why, does no one tell me these things?!
No argument there.