'Cocaine' energy drink (2006)
Redux Beverages launched an energy drink literally named 'Cocaine,' with packaging that riffed on the drug trade. In November 2006, the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter calling the name and marketing dangerous.
Retailers dropped the product and Redux re-branded it, briefly as 'No Name' and then 'Censored.'
The episode showed regulators and stores will act on beverage names that reference illicit drugs, even when the drink itself is legal.
Sizzurp borrows a banned substance's slang for its brand; the Cocaine precedent shows what can happen if regulators or retailers object.
