7Up, The Uncola History: "It's a Matter of Taste" circa 1950 Seven-Up 20min
more at
http://food.quickfound.net/
Details the history of 7UP, and shows the 7-Up bottling process in detail.
NEW VERSION with improved video & sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9NTDCVIZDs
Public domain film from the
Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
7UP is a brand of a lemon-lime flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The rights to the brand are held by
Dr Pepper Snapple Group in the
United States, and PepsiCo (or its licensees) in the rest of the world, including
Puerto Rico, where the concentrate is manufactured at the Pepsi facility in
Cidra. The 7UP logo includes a red spot between the '7' and 'UP'; this red spot has been animated and used as a mascot for the brand as
Cool Spot.
History
7UP was created by
Charles Leiper Grigg, who launched his St. Louis-based company The
Howdy Corporation in
1920. Grigg came up with the formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929. The product, originally named "
Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", was launched two weeks before the
Wall Street Crash of 1929. It contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug, until
1950. It was one of a number of patent medicine products popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
Philip Morris bought 7UP in 1978, and sold it in
1986, to a group led by the investment firm
Hicks & Haas. 7UP merged with Dr
Pepper in
1988;
Cadbury Schweppes bought the combined company in
1995. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group was spun off from Cadbury Schweppes in 2008.
Formula
7UP has been reformulated several times since its launch in 1929. In
2006, the version of the product sold in the
U.S. was re-formulated so that it could be marketed as being "
100%
Natural". This was achieved by eliminating the chelating-agent calcium disodium
EDTA, and replacing sodium citrate with potassium citrate in order to reduce the beverage's sodium content. This re-formulation contains no fruit juice and [in the
USA] is sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (
HFCS). The manufacturing process used in the production of HFCS has led some public health and advocacy groups to challenge the ad campaign's "natural" claims. In
2007, after the
Center for Science in the
Public Interest threatened to sue 7UP, it was announced that 7UP would stop being marketed as "100% natural".
Instead, It is now promoted as having "100%
Natural Flavors". The controversy does not extend to other countries, such as the
United Kingdom, where the high fructose corn syrup is not generally used in foods, including 7UP. 7UP is a common folk remedy, for example relieving stomach aches. In
2011, 7UP began test-marketing a formula, called 7UP
Retro, using sugar rather than HFCS.
Container labels sport the caption, "Made With
Real Sugar".
There exists a myth that the 7UP name comes from the "fact" of the drink having a pH over 7. That would make it neutral or alkaline on the scale; however, this is not the case, as the 7UP pH is close to 3.79, similar to other drinks of the type. The real origin of the name is unclear, though Britvic claims that the name comes from the seven main ingredients in the drink
...
Slogans and advertising campaigns
- You Like It, It Likes You (1936)[10]
- The
Fresh Up
Family Drink (
1952)
- Fresh up with 7UP (
1957)
-
Nothing does it like 7UP! (1957--1958)
- Get real action, 7UP your thirst away (1963--1964)
-
Wet 'n' Wild (
1965, 1966)
- The (
Diet) Uncola. (1967-1990s) (some with charismatic actor
Geoffrey Holder)
-
Crisp refreshing 7UP (1960s-1970s)
-
It's 7UP, it's Uncola (
1975)
- UNdo it with 7UP (1977--78)
-
America is turning 7UP (1978--79)
- 7UP,
The Cool Spot (
1980)...