Simon Fearn
The sky’s the limit after Tesla CEO Elon Musk finalised a deal to buy social media giant Twitter for $44 billion earlier this week, and he’s now – jokingly – announced his intentions to buy another household name.
Musk announced he had reached a deal to buy the social media giant on Monday, 25 April, amid promises to protect free speech as ‘the bedrock of a functioning democracy’.
Many have speculated whether this means former POTUS Donald Trump could be allowed back onto the platform after he was booted off in January 2021 following the Capitol riots, with Twitter citing the reason as ‘the risk of further incitement of violence’.
Musk has also received backlash after people dug out tweets from last year in which he seemingly promised to solve world hunger following an exchange with director of the United Nations World Food Programme David Beasley.
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Some slammed the SpaceX CEO for splurging his plentiful cash on Twitter rather than humanitarian projects.
These are just a fraction of the many controversies that following the announcement of Musk and Twitter’s deal, but in a typical trolling tweet the richest man in the world announced which global brand is next on his shopping list.
He tweeted: “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in.”
Sure, Elon, sure.
He added in a follow-up tweet, his idea for the beverage ‘kicks Red Bull’s ass!’
In its original recipe, the shared name between the popular fizzy drink and the now-Class A drug was more than just a coincidence.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Coca-Cola’s original recipe – developed by John Pemberton – contained a precursor to cocaine ecgonine in the form of extracts of the coca leaf.
This inspired the ‘Coca’ part of the name, with the ‘Cola’ ingredient being caffeine stimulant the kola nut.
It should be added that cocaine was completely legal at the time and a common ingredient in medicine. The amount of coca leaf extract in the drink reduced over time, before being eliminated altogether in 1929.
However, while the company previously admitted a precursor to cocaine was part of its original recipe, it writes on its website: “Coca-Cola does not contain cocaine or any other harmful substance, and cocaine has never been an added ingredient in Coca-Cola.”
UNILAD has reached out to the Coca-Cola Company for comment.
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