On the side of every packet of Kool-Aid was a little box that had a number in it. The number was like currency, you save enough of them and you could buy stuff like a t-shirt or a plastic mug that looked like the Kool-Aid man.
My mom would get us Kool-Aid all the time and we would collect the points and save up for that big prize. Well, this went on until we had a stack of Kool-Aid packets so large that it barely fit in the drawer, and the funny thing was, we never spent them.
See, just recently we threw away the giant stack. Kool-Aid never released any kind of brochure or flyer showing anything you could spend the points on and have discontinued the promotion. I guess Kool-Aid just kept printing the points on the side to give kids like my brother and I something to look forward to.

8 thoughts on “Artifacts of the Analog Age: Kool-Aid Points

  1. sigh says:

    497 was our grand total when the stack went away. i’m disappointed, kool aid man. You go busting through walls all willy-nilly leaving a path of destruction…but what you failed to see was that one of those was the wall to my heart…

    🙁

  2. fluffy says:

    I always wondered what the deal was with those, and also with the Betty Crocker points that you can still find on some cereal boxes. Didn’t Ralston-Purina also have an ill-defined reward system? Not that any of those ever inspired anyone I knew to collect them.

  3. skid says:

    hmmmmm maybe this was the thing i was thinking about. Ihttp://blog.paxholley.net/2010/02/02/a-look-at-the-awesome-swag-from-the-kool-aid-wacky-warehouse/

    1. gabe says:

      Whoa! So cool! I never saw any of that stuff! Did you ever know anybody that had any of this stuff or any Kool-aid treasures?

  4. Savage says:

    I got the Kool-Aid comic http://www.oldmanmusings.com/2007/05/28/kool-aid-adventures/ with some of my points. I was trying to save for the Kool-Aid Man video game, for the Atari 2600.

  5. skid says:

    For some reason my first comment didn’t post…but I think I bought something from one of those. I don’t remember what it was and what I got, but I do remember stuffing all my points in an envelope, filling something out and sending it out. It was probably something small and boring.
    In my first post I said that I had one of those red Kool-aid pitchers for years! It even had the cups but those got lost. Whenever we had Kool-aid it was always in the Kool-aid pitcher! I think I pretty much grew up on Kool-aid and cartoons.

  6. Chris Sobieniak says:

    I remember trying to save up those points too but never did get anything. My folks didn’t care for that stuff quite that much, though I particularly miss Sunshine Punch flavor Kool-Aid myself.

  7. Boob says:

    My sis and I TOTALLY sold out to the Kool-Aid Empire. Watches, walkie talkies, pencils, wall-crawlers, yo-yos, hats, t-shirts, etc. I vividly remember owning BOTH a Sharkleberry Fin and a Purplesaurus Rex beach towel.

    I still might have a trinket or two packed away in a box in the crawl space somewhere.

    We drank the stuff by the gallon though. I brought juice boxes and Kool-Aid Koolers (sp? They were those plastic flexible “long neck” drinks) to school everyday so once a week I’d pick out a new flavor on grocery day. I always wanted to try the latest made up flavor. Mom made pitchers constantly and I’d make freeze pops and slushies (partially frozen Kool-Aid usually “overcooked” and chipped away at with a metal spoon) often during the summers.

    And so the points fattened up an envelope my mom kept on top of the fridge.

    I gotta hand it to ’em. It worked on me. And somehow I still have my teeth.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *