6. COLA DROPS ACID
Collaborating with Ken Kesey's grandson to print my
MIDNIGHT CLIMAX! design on 900-hit LSD blotter was a big highlight of the last 12 months.
The piece was part of the Acid Drop, a July collection inspired by Tom O'Neill's book CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the 1960s. Specifically, my collection centered on the very real possibility that Charles Manson took part in CIA-funded LSD experiments at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic.
We know that Manson frequented the clinic while Dr. Jolly West ran MKULTRA mind-control experiments at the same location. After leaving the Bay Area, Manson initiated new members into his Family via days-long sessions that involved copious amounts of LSD. As the result of these sessions, Manson accomplished what the CIA had failed to do: incorporate LSD into a successful brainwashing regimen. If Manson was not a CIA asset, or at the very least an exceptionally keen MKULTRA subject, his and West's overlapping time at the clinic goes down as one of history's great coincidences.
As I wrote on the Corporate Blog,
O'Neill recounts an interaction he had with Alan Scheflin, a forensic psychologist and law professor who had published a book on MKULTRA. "I laid out a circumstantial case linking West to Manson," O'Neill remembers. "Was it possible, I asked, that the Manson murders were an MKULTRA experiment gone wrong?
"'No,'" (Scheflin) said, 'an MKULTRA experiment gone right.'"⁷
However, as I state elsewhere in the same blog post,
... I prefer to focus on one clear fact: the U.S. government had goals that were shared, and ultimately accomplished, by the most diabolical figure of the 1960s. Sidney Gottlieb, with his extra-legal, administrative obsession with mind control, fell into league with a murderous lunatic who to this day haunts the consciousness of a nation. Surely that shared interest—that affinity—is the deserving point of our focus.
The Acid Drop launch shattered my record for sales in a day. The second day of the drop still ranks among the top 10 all-time sales days. As I like to say, thanks to everyone who got it, and everyone who gets it.
A few pieces from the Acid Drop are still in stock, here.
7. THE DEATHS OF PEYO AND COCO
The Cola Cats have become an integral part of the brand. Prior to 2025, the cats mostly featured in behind-the-scenes content on Insta and Bluesky. Earlier this year, our feline crew went from seven members to six, and then from six to five.
I'm not going to rehash the deaths of Peyo and Coco. I wrote memorials for each of them in my weekly emails. Because the cats had become part of the brand, I thought not mentioning their passings would be odd.
The response to the emails was overwhelming. People thanked me for sharing my heartache. I think the response fits into a larger dynamic with my work.
The people who like Cola tend to love Cola. I think that's partially because members of my audience feel like they know me. Also, the brand and I have become interchangeable. When people on Twitter started calling me "Cola," I went with it, and adopted the brand name as my own. There is an ironic tension between the generic name the Cola Corporation and the amount of personalization that goes into my work, from hand-written notes and custom requests to emails that keep customers updated on orders, and even how I approach packaging. All of this builds atop the deep personal significance that undergirds a lot of my designs.
There isn't a lot of daylight between me (Joe) and the brand (Cola). I have never wanted work / life balance. It presupposes an imbalance, a conflict for supremacy between two things. I practice work / life fluidity. My wife often gently reminds me that I share a lot of myself freely with strangers. I don't know. It feels natural to me.
I've worked at actual corporations where brand managers ask, "How can we make our motor oil feel more like a person? What can we do to get our customers to feel like they have a personal relationship with a candy bar?" The answer is you can't. Corporations are always trying to reverse engineer commodities into emotions. This is why brands driven by a single, personal vision almost invariably go to shit once acquired by corporations.
You might have noticed that I'm avoiding talking about Peyo and Coco directly. I just can't.
You can read Peyo's memorial here.
You can read Coco's memorial here.
8. The 1A Burning Flag Sweater
Since I launched Cola in 2019, Internet Leftists and MAGA goobers alike have pilloried me over my pricing. I expected more of the same when I dropped my 1A sweater.
That backlash never came.
Instead, the run sold out quickly and I received glowing emails from members of Cola fam who picked it up.
My 1A design upends the phony patriotism of Ralph Lauren's "Iconic Flag Sweater" with a real statement about "the land of the free"—one increasingly relevant given the DOJ's classification of anti-government criticism as "terrorism." In terms of materials and construction, my sweater is vastly superior to Ralph's.
It also costs $170 less.
The fact that people understood the 1A statement and appreciated it as a world-class garment did a lot for my confidence.
I want to make primo shit. That can't be done at sweatshop prices, because primo shit doesn't come from sweatshops. 1A proved I can follow my instincts and still have an audience.
Thanks to everyone who got it, and everyone who gets it.
The 1A Burning Flag sweater is now available in its second run.
9. Fuck the LAPD / Southwest Airlines / FREE LINK
On March 25, people on Bluesky started pointing me to the above post. At the time, I didn't know Link.
My first thought was, "Wait, is that my Fuck the LAPD shirt, the one that went viral in May 2024 after the LAPD sent me a bullshit DMCA letter and Mike Dunford wrote one of the best response letters of all time on my behalf?
Yep, it was that one.
Here's how the sad situation unfolded:
Link was wearing my Fuck the LAPD tee (made by Teamsters and printed by a Black-owned and operated shop in Chicago Lawn).
During boarding, someone on Link's flight got their feelings hurt by the tee. Rather than say anything to Link, the triggered snowflake complained to the flight attendants.
Rather than advising the triggered snowflake to simply not look at the shirt, the attendants asked Link to de-board. (This is the most disconcerting part of the whole debacle, from my perspective. The attendants didn’t have to go along with the bootlicker.)
Here’s the thing: Link was en route to a Space Law conference. I admit, Space Law is not my forte. However, I imagine that if someone attended law school and can argue the provenance of moon rocks, they might not be the best person to bully with arbitrary demands.
Sure enough, instead of capitulating, Link pushed back, and won.
The bootlicker didn’t get their way. They had to sit with their impotent rage for the duration of the flight. They had to watch Link freely move about the cabin. They had, in short, to stick it up their ass. Reminding fascists that their wonderland—in which all dissent in public life is forcibly suppressed—won’t be realized without resistance every step of the way, no matter how small the step, is a worthwhile endeavor.
I asked Link what advice he’d give someone who encounters a similar situation. His response:
Depends on the person and what they’re willing to risk, how comfortable and vulnerable they feel. If they just want to cover up their shirt with a jacket or sweater or something, that would probably be OK. If they want to push back, they should ask what policy they’ve violated and if they can see the policy. Also ask for employee names, and for the complaint process.
To commemorate the occasion, I made a 1/1 shirt for Link with the following graphics:
Speaking of Link, it's been awhile since the Bluesky mods banned his account for a harmless post following Charlie Kirk's death.
At the moment, there is exactly one of the unionmade Fuck the LAPD tees left in stock. You can buy it here.
10. ONLINE BANS
Getting banned from online platforms has become a Cola Corp tradition. During 2025 we kept pace by:
having our Tik Tok shop shut down,
losing advertising capabilities on Pinterest, moments after registering for a business account, and
having Etsy products pulled for "celebrating violence."
ETSY AND "CELEBRATING VIOLENCE"
You can buy a lot of stuff on Etsy, including:
Fezzes listed as "Mussolini hats,"
Jeffrey Dahmer cutting boards,
Pinochet action figures, and
Charles Manson t-shirts.
Apparently, none of these items violate Etsy's prohibition against items attributed to "perpetuators of violence." Strange! But you know what article of clothing does violate the guideline?
A tie-dyed baseball cap with the letter L.
This week, Etsy banned my L cap from their platform, citing the "perpetuators of violence" edict. The company also sent me a dire warning that one more infraction would result in my shop being closed for good.
I sent Etsy three emails asking, repeatedly, for clarification on their tolerance of fascist merchandise. I also asked them to explain how the letter L is inherently violent—an explanation, I pointed out, that would interest linguists worldwide. At each turn, Etsy deflected. First they sent me a copypasta of FAQs. Then they cited their policy that all items must be handmade by the seller (spare me: the place is a haven for drop shippers and junk peddlers). Finally, a supervisor told me that in order to continue the conversation, I had to give them my bank account number. I declined.
TIK TOK OK WITH ANTISEMITISM, BEASTIALITY, RACISM, AND MISOGYNY. BUT AILEEN WUORNOS IS TOO MUCH.
Only one of these tees is banned by tik tok
Tiktok has a problem
These were all suspended because they are "Offensive." Bear in mind you can buy a tshirt that calls Kamala Harris a "hoe," and which Tik Tok promoted at the top of user feeds
All of my tees have been deleted from my tik tok shop. One more “violation” and I’ll get banned. Meanwhile this is fine
Tik Tok is fine with a slop video insinuating beastiality, but this tee was taken down for violating terms
I got a third one so I recorded it this time.
PINTEREST
When you set up a business account with Pinterest, you get a notice that a human will review your application and respond. Within minutes of submitting my application, I got a notification that my Pinterest shop, which I hadn't even stocked yet, had been closed for violation of Pinterest guidelines. Whoever reviewed my application took one look at my website and bailed. I appealed, asking for an explanation re: which guidelines I violated. Pinterest responded by telling me that my appeal had been rejected and refused to answer my question.
META: THE ORIGINAL BAN
In 2019, I did my first editorial photoshoot, "Not My Type." I tried to boost one of the images as an ad on Instagram. It was denied and I immediately lost my advertising account. When I asked why, I was told that Meta doesn't allow ads with political content. When I pointed out other ads with political content, I was told that my ad included sexual content, which is not allowed. When I pointed to several ads from ass models, I was ignored.
In retrospect, none of this bothers me. It's stupid of course, but I don't want social media driving my business. As time goes on, I want less to do with social media in general.
My goal for 2026 is do as much IRL as possible.
The future is offline.
You can buy Cola Corp designs at www.thecolacorporation.com, and nowhere else.