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7 Up

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For other uses, see 7 Up (disambiguation).
7 Up
TypeLemon-lime soda
ManufacturerCadburys (U.S.), PepsiCo (elsewhere)
Country of origin United States
Introduced1929 (as Lithiated Lemon)
VariantsdnL, 7 Up Plus
Related productsDr Pepper, Sprite, Sierra Mist
Websitewww.7up.com Edit this on Wikidata

7 Up is a brand of a lemon-lime flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The rights to the brand are held by Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages in the United States, and by PepsiCo in the rest of the world (sublicensed to Britvic in the United Kingdom and C&C in Ireland).

Formula

7 Up has been reformulated several times since its launch in 1929; in 2006, the U.S. version underwent another reformulation, becoming "100% Natural" with five ingredients: "filtered carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, natural citric acid, natural flavors, natural potassium citrate".[1] However, classifying this product as "100% Natural" is problematic as high fructose corn syrup is manufactured by using enzymes that convert corn starch into sugar. (Starch is made up of multiple sugar molecules that have been linked together.) It should also be noted that this is not the case in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, where high fructose corn syrup is not generally used in foods, including 7UP. In 2007, after the CSPI threatened to sue 7 Up, it was announced that 7 Up would stop being marketed as "100% Natural". It is now marketed instead as having "100% Natural Flavors".

7 Up is also available in Cherry 7 Up flavor, with these ingredients listed: Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, and 2% or less of each of the following: citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, potassium benzoate (preservative), red 40.

Diet Cherry 7 Up has recently been re-introduced due to popular demand after having been missing due to the existence of 7 Up Plus Cherry flavor.[2] Ingredients are as follows: Filtered carbonated water and contains 2% or less of each of the following: citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, potassium benzoate (protects flavor), aspartame, potassium citrate, acesulfame potassium, red 40. Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine [3]

Diet 7 Up has also been reformulated recently where it was packaged and advertised as now made with Splenda sweetener (sucralose) but now the formula has been re-tooled and they are using the following Ingredients: Filtered carbonated water and contains 2% or less of each of the following: natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, potassium benzoate (protects flavor), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA (protects flavor). Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine [4]. They also do still list the ingredients for Diet 7 Up with Splenda as the following Ingredients: Filtered carbonated water and contains 2% or less of each of the following: natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, potassium benzoate (protects flavor), calcium disodium EDTA (protects flavor), acesulfame potassium, sucralose. [5]. The 7 Up company claims they switched back to aspartame because they conducted a nation-wide study showing that people preferred the 'aspartame taste' over the taste of Splenda-brand Sweetener. 7 Up Plus is still sweetened with Splenda, and they announce no intention of switching it to aspartame.

Name origin

The origin of 7 Up's name is unclear. One popular myth is that its creator named the soft drink after seeing a cattle brand with the number 7 and the letter U.[6] Other theories suggest that the name reflects the seven syllables in the drink's original name (Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime) or that the drink was formulated with seven flavors plus the bubbles from the drink's carbonation (the bubbles go up). Other ideas include the original bottle contained seven ounces; its creator came up with the name while playing dice; that it was the 7th large commercial lemonade brand that tasted the same. Another rumor has it that the name was created because the company had previously failed six times, hence the name "7 Up."[6] Before the formula change in 2006, a can of 7 Up included seven ingredients. The "Up" in the drink's name might refer to the original inclusion of Lithium, a mood stabiliser.

Some people mistakenly believe that the name 7 Up comes from the fact that its pH is 7.0 and therefore neutral.{fact} This is not the case: the pH of 7 Up is comparable to many other soft drinks. At a pH of 3.67,[7] Diet 7 Up is less acidic than lemon juice (pH 2.3), vinegar (pH 2.9) or wine (pH 3.5)[8].

Another possibility is that the drink is named after the card game Seven Up. [citation needed]

History

7 Up was created by Charles Leiper Grigg who launched his St. Louis-based company The Howdy Corporation in 1920.[6] 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.[6] The product's name was soon changed to 7 Up.[6]

The original slogan for 7 Up was "7 Up and 7 Down! Turn that frown into an upside-down! Wickity wow! Yeah!"

7 Up, as its first name suggests, originally contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. It was one of a number of patent medicine products popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries; they made claims similar to today's health foods.

The Great Depression was just the beginning of the business challenges the product would face. In its early years, there were around 600 lemon-lime beverage brands being sold in the US.[6] 7 Up was able to survive and become the market leader in the category by being one of the first to be nationally distributed as well as being marketed as more healthy than other soft drinks.[citation needed]

The success of 7 Up led Grigg to rename his company to The Seven Up Company in 1936.[6]

Lithium citrate was removed from 7 Up's formula in 1950.

Expanding the brand beyond a niche market, major competitors began to set their sights on it such as The Coca-Cola Company with its Sprite brand introduced in 1961. Sprite would not challenge 7 Up's position seriously until the 1980s when Coke forced its major bottlers, then distributing 7 Up, to drop the beverage in deference to Sprite. 7 Up challenged Coke's actions in court as anti-competitive, a challenge they eventually lost.[9]

From the 1960s to the 1990s, 7 Up was billed as "the un-Cola", particularly in a series of ads featuring actor/choreographer Geoffrey Holder. In one commercial, he held a kola nut in one hand and an "un-Cola nut" (a lemon or lime) in the other. Holder's casting in the "Un-Cola" series of commercials made him the first person of color to appear in TV ads for the soft drink.[10]

Philip Morris acquired The Seven Up Company in June 1978.[6] Philip Morris sold the brand's U.S. operations in 1986 to a private investment group, which merged with Dr Pepper Company and established Dallas, Texas as the headquarters of the combined company.[6]

File:7-Up can.jpg
A can of 7-Up.

7 Up became dependent on Pepsi's bottlers for distribution during the 1990s, until PepsiCo launched its own serious entrant in the category with Sierra Mist in 2000. PepsiCo then adopted the previous Coca-Cola tactic and forced its bottlers to give up 7 Up for Sierra Mist, which most did by 2003.[citation needed]

The result is that in the United States, Dr. Pepper/Seven Up do not have a network of bottlers and distributors, so some of their products are frequently bottled under contract by independent Coca-Cola or Pepsi bottlers. Though, in some areas, independent distributors exist, either Cadbury-Schweppes or by individual, independent bottling plants such as Vineland Syrup of Vineland, New Jersey [1] and Polar Beverages of Worcester, Massachusetts. These bottlers often do not distribute their products beyond major supermarket chains, making 7 Up difficult to find in smaller stores and vending machines.

In an effort to align their brands and build a better "route to market", Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverage acquired most of the independent 7 Up bottlers in the U.S. in 2006 and created the Cadbury Schweppes Bottling Group.

In 1998, 48 years since the first formula change with lithium's removal, 7 Up was flavor-enhanced without changing the sugar content or carbonation level.

File:Fido-dido.JPG
Fido Dido

In 2000, the brand adopted Fido Dido as an official mascot.

In 2006, the product was re-formulated so that it could be marketed as being "100% Natural" in the United States. This was achieved by eliminating the preservative calcium disodium EDTA, and replacing sodium citrate with potassium citrate to reduce the beverage's sodium content.[11] This re-formulation contains no fruit juice and is still sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The manufacturing process used in the production of HFCS has led some public health and special interest groups to challenge the ad campaign's "natural" claims.[12] In Ireland however, it remains the only carbonated soft drink that is 100% natural (there is no HFCS used in the manufacturing process). This has led it to becoming one of the top five grocery brands across all grocery categories. see http://www.checkout.ie/Top100.asp

Variations

7 Up Plus is a family of fruit-flavored soft drinks, part of the 7 Up family of beverages, and produced by Cadbury-Schweppes. Touted as a healthy alternative, it contains no caffeine and has only 2 carbs per serving, as well as 5% apple juice, which is uncommon among American market carbonated beverages. It is sweetened with Splenda, and the original flavor, Mixed Berry, was released in summer 2004. Two additional flavors have been added to the line, Cherry and Island Fruit. In Ireland in 2007, 7up launched a range of flavored water.

7UP Gold was marketed for a short time in 1988 as a spice-flavored beverage, something like a Ginger Ale.[13]

7UP Free is sold in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Argentina and Iceland[14]. It contains no caffeine, sugar, colorings or preservatives and is marketed as "Natural Lemon and Lime flavour" similar to the "100% natural" American version. It contains a combination of artificial sugars, and on the Norwegian market it is the only variety available. The lack of the usual light-label is confusing to Norwegian consumers, who often buy it not knowing they are buying a product with artificial sugars.

Listen

Cultural references

  • When The Seven-Ups (1973) was filmed, all of the actors posed in front of a 7 Up delivery truck to advertise the film.
  • 7 Up products appeared in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979).
  • A 7 Up commercial which ran from about 1971 to 1972 was one of the first manifestations of a revival of 1950s United States youth culture. It featured a leather-jacketed greaser who said: "Hey remember me? I'm a teenager."
  • In 1983, a 7 Up commercial in Mexico featured Kim Carnes' hit "Bette Davis Eyes" with the phrase "Alrededor del Mundo Seven Up" ("Around the world Seven Up"). It also featured the Pac-Man video game.
  • The red spot for 7 Up has been an interim mascot for the brand. He had a video game spinoff called Cool Spot.
  • DJ Quik raps "I need a 7 Up because my head is spinnin' / round and round, I think I better sit down" in his hit song "Tonite" ("Quik Is The Name", 1991).
  • In the Snoop Dogg song "Chronic Break" from his debut album Doggystyle, he says, "I treat a bitch like 7 Up, I never have I never will." This is a reference to an old slogan of 7 Up, where they asserted that the drink has never and will never contain caffeine.
  • A popular social group known as "Heads Up 7up" was started by a group of UC Berkeley students in 2002. Current members reside in San Francisco, Davis, San Diego, Orange County, Bethesda, Washington D.C., London and Warsaw.
  • 7 Up is a popular drink among fans of Scottish football team Hibernian F.C., due to a famous 7-0 (7 Up) win against their city rivals Hearts.

Miscellanea

References

  1. ^ "Nutritional Facts." 7UP.com.
  2. ^ "The Slug.com." The Slug: Rejoice! Diet Cherry 7 Up to Return to Us!.
  3. ^ "Diet Cherry 7 Up Nutritional Facts." 7UP.com.
  4. ^ "Diet 7 Up Nutritional Facts." 7UP.com.
  5. ^ "Diet 7 Up with Splenda Nutritional Facts." 7UP.com.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i "7 UP: The Making of a Legend." Cadbury Schweppes: America's Beverages.
  7. ^ "Drinks That Eat Teeth." 21st Century Dental.
  8. ^ "pH Scale: Some Common Solutions." MSN Encarta.
  9. ^ Seven-Up Co. v. Coca-Cola Co. No. 95-10048. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
  10. ^ "Uncola: The Video History of a 7UP Breakthrough Ad." How Actor Geoffrey Holder Brought Down a Racial Barrier. By Karl Idsvoog and Bill Barre. May 7, 2007 Advertising Age.
  11. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions." 7UP.com.
  12. ^ Center for Science in the Public Interest (May 11, 2006). CSPI to Sue Cadbury Schweppes over "All Natural" 7UP. Press release.
  13. ^ "http://www.rateitall.com/i-34416-7up-gold.aspx"
  14. ^ "http://www.egils.is/is/vorur/gos/7up%5Ffree/"

See also

Template:Lemon-lime sodas

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