<P> "Drinking the Kool - Aid" is an expression commonly used in the United States that refers to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards . The phrase often carries a negative connotation . It can also be used ironically or humorously to refer to accepting an idea or changing a preference due to popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion . In recent years it has evolved further to mean extreme dedication to a cause or purpose, so extreme that one would "Drink the Kool - Aid" and die for the cause . </P> <P> The phrase derives from the November 1978 Jonestown deaths in which over 900 members of the Peoples Temple died by drinking a powdered drink mix laced with cyanide . Most voluntarily committed suicide while the rest were killed by forced ingestion of the poison . The powdered drink mix used might not have been Kool - Aid but could have been the competing brand Flavor Aid . However this is disputed as the commune had both among thier supplies . </P> <P> On November 18, 1978, Jones ordered that the members of Representative Leo Ryan's party be killed after several defectors chose to leave with the party . Residents of the commune later committed suicide by drinking a flavored beverage laced with potassium cyanide, some were forced to drink it, some (such as small children) drank it unknowingly . Roughly 918 people died . </P> <P> Descriptions of the event often refer to the beverage not as Kool - Aid but as Flavor Aid, a less - expensive product reportedly found at the site . Kraft Foods, the maker of Kool - Aid, has stated the same . Implied by this accounting of events is that the reference to the Kool - Aid brand owes exclusively to its being better - known among Americans . Others are less categorical . Both brands are known to have been among the commune's supplies: Film footage shot inside the compound prior to the events of November shows Jones opening a large chest in which boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool - Aid are visible . Criminal investigators testifying at the Jonestown inquest spoke of finding packets of "cool aid" (sic), and eyewitnesses to the incident are also recorded as speaking of "cool aid" or "Cool Aid ." It is unclear whether they intended to refer to the actual Kool - Aid--brand drink or were using the name in a generic sense that might refer to any powdered flavored beverage . </P>

Who coined the term drink the kool aid