Tango (drink)

Tango is a carbonated soft drink sold primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland, first launched by Corona in 1950. Corona were bought by the Beecham Group in 1958, and Beecham Soft Drinks were bought by Britvic in 1987.

Originally, Tango was the name of the orange flavour in a range of different flavoured drinks that each had their own name. In the 1990s, long after the other products in the range had passed into obscurity, the Tango brand was expanded into other flavours, including apple, lemon, cherry, blackcurrant, and later "Fruit Fling". Some of these have since been discontinued; the flavours currently available in the UK are Orange, Apple, Cherry and Citrus. There is also a sugar-free variant of Orange as well as a slushy drink, Tango Ice Blast.

Advertisements

Advertisements for Tango were originally largely unremarkable (apart from some humorous ads), but since the 1990s they have become well-known for their distinctively bizarre and often postmodern tone. The advertisements are arguably now more talked-about than the product itself, and manufacturer Britvic's own Tango brand page states that "Today Tango is probably most famous for its successful and innovative marketing campaigns".

The first "ironic" campaign introduced the now-common catchphrase "You know when you've been Tango'd", produced by advertising agency HHCL. The campaign began in 1991 with an ad featuring a man being slapped around the face by a portly man painted orange (Peter Geeves) immediately after drinking Tango. It received widespread condemnation after a craze for "Tangoing" people swept the nation's playgrounds, and there were reports of children receiving serious injuries or even being deafened by being slapped on the ears. It has also been suggested that young children were too weak to cause such damage and that it was in fact students who had injured themselves. Whatever the truth, Tango voluntarily replaced the "slapping" advert with an almost-identical new version where the orange-clad person kisses the man instead of hitting him. However, the original version was named the 3rd best television commercial of all time in a 2000 poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4. Most subsequent Tango advertisements have avoided showing violence, except for an ad in 2004 which was again banned because of violence, and the 1997 'Vote Orange Now' advert, where the orange clad man makes another appearence (although probably played by another person), slapping the main man in the advert several times just before the advert finishes.

Other advertisements in the campaign featured:

• a man shouting "Oranges" into a woman's ear whilst she is waiting for a train
• a man dressed up like Napoleon wearing an orange glove, and rubbing it into another man's face
• an orange-painted man wearing a kilt with no legs and a blue afro hairstyle (known as the "Flying Scotsman") who is flying to find his missing foot.

Further slogans used include "You need it because you're weak" (for Diet Tango) and "Feed the Tango Inside".

After various other ads, like the "We Drink Tango Don't You Know" ads of 1998-1999 and "Feed The Tango Inside!" ad of 2001, Tango brought back their famous "You Know When You've Been Tango'd" slogan in a brand new set of adverts, which would feature scientists performing unnecessary stunts. These adverts were used for Tango Orange and Tango Apple. The adverts lasted from 2002 to 2005.

In 2008, Tango launched a campaign called 'Save Tango', due to a drop of sales in the drink.

In 2009, Tango turned their can designs upside-down following a dare from social networking site bragster in a drive to increase sales.

A 2009 UK billboard campaign extolled the "weird and wonderful" side effects of drinking too much "Tango with added Tango Orange" (e.g. "TOO MUCH TANGO made me suck a Bull's UDDER"). UK Newspapers also pointed out that the initials of "Tango With Added Tango" spelled the insult TWAT when read vertically. This was later revealed to be intentional.[1]

Tango has extended its web presence onto facebook and other well-known social networking sites.

In 2010, Tango had aired an short commerical with an old women dancing, and then she undoes her shirt, makes her chest pop outwards and shouts "release your self" her clothing underneath said the words "tango'd"

Phone lines

Tango advertisements have sometimes featured phone numbers for viewers to call. One such advertisement purported to show secretly-shot footage of a cult that worships a rubber doll, and those who called the on-screen number were able to purchase a replica of the doll. The Tango Doll line consisted of yes and no questions, but the person speaking to the caller always replied "We heard you say... yes!", regardless of what the caller said, and said they passed the test to be part of the cult. A new name was later given to the caller, with that usually being "Soft Shepherd", and the parcel containing the doll would have this as the receiver's middle name on the delivery address.

Tango also aired phone number ads where another cult worship a man called "Jim". Short (and often rude) ads were made to accompany the ads, which featured a person about to do something naughty when Jim appears suddenly and shouts "It's a Lemon Tango Moment".

A 1993 commercial was disguised as a product recall, in which a man, who claimed to work for "Tango Limited", warns people not to buy any Still Tango as the company only makes fizzy drinks, and if they already bought one not to consume it, but call the number on screen. The phone line message was a loop of "You known when you've been Tango'd!". In another advert a rave is shown, with an announcer saying "Still Tango is only available in selected outlets!".

Another advertised line was for "Apple Seduction", in which the first ad showed a can of Apple Tango telephoning a man at work, who is told by the can to say "Kiss my big juicy apples", which he ends up shouting into the phone. Afterwards a can of Apple Tango is shown alongside a phone number, with a voiceover saying "If Apple seduction is taking over your life, call", with the advert finishing too fast making it purposely hard for the number to be memorised or written down. The number, if dialed, gave a series of questions to which the caller gave yes or no answers after a tone was sounded. One of the questions was "Do the colours purple and green remind you of your mother?". Another "Apple Seduction" aired, in which the can of Apple Tango telephoned a man at home, telling him to run down to the supermarket and buy a can of Apple Tango.

One phone line, and the latest line to date in which a Tango product can be purchased was in 1997-2000 for a Tango Megaphone, enabling the user to "Shout down non-Tango drinkers". The line did not require the caller to answer questions but to give their postal address and name. The call opened with a woman yelling "Stand up straight!" to the caller.

Blackcurrant Tango

Main article: St George (commercial)

Blackcurrant Tango is a carbonated soft drink launched in the UK by Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd in 1996. The drink is notable for the multi award winning 1997 TV commercial, St George, which was used to promote it. The drink has since been discontinued.

For the launch of Blackcurrant Tango in 1996 HHCL produced the "St. George" television and cinema advertisement. In the advertisement a member of Tango's customer service staff, Ray Gardner, provides a response to a letter of complaint about the flavour of Blackcurrant Tango he has received from a French exchange student. The letter prompts an increasingly jingoistic tirade during which Ray Gardner removes his suit to reveal bright purple boxing shorts. In one continuous take he walks from his office, marches out of Tango's building and is joined by a flag waving crowd as he enters a boxing ring. As the camera pulls back it is revealed that the ring is perched on the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover. As the camera circles, Gardner can be heard shouting, Come on France, Europe, the world. I'll take you all on! I'm Ray Gardner. I drink Blackcurrant Tango. Come and get me! whilst three Harrier Jump Jets with purple landing lights hover in the background.

The advertisement was notable for the use of digital editing to seamlessly merge a number of tracking shots including the final transition from a sky camera to a helicopter shot. Ray Gardner later won the "ITV Best Actor In A Commercial" Award for his performance. The commercial was voted the best long commercial (1956–2001) by the UK's Film4 TV channel in June 2007. It was written and art directed by Chas Bayfield and Jim Bolton and was directed by Colin Gregg.

Sony Bravia parody

In early 2006 an advertising campaign for 'Tango Clear' was launched, parodying the 'Balls' themed advertisement for Sony BRAVIA LCD televisions. The original Sony advert consisted of thousands of coloured balls as they bounce down the roads of San Francisco. The Tango advert was set in Swansea and featured fruit instead of coloured balls, using the same production style and the same music track by Jose Gonzalez. It also copies almost exactly the moment from the Bravia advert when a frog leaps out from a drainpipe. It parodies Sony's slogan 'Colour.like.no.other' with 'Refreshment like no other', finishing the advert with "It's clear when you've been Tango'd"

A parody website was also set up alongside the advert, purporting to be the "Swansea North Residents Association". According to the website, the filming of the advert: left large amounts of fruit matter across the streets, caused damage to property, scared wildlife and residents, and was unaccompanied by financial compensation. Visitors can sign a petition and view the original advert in a variety of formats.

Following the advert, another Tango Clear advert was made. This featured a woman being sprayed with water by various out of place people in her office. When asked by other workers, she says they are 'just a metaphor'.

Logos and packaging

Before Britvic bought the brand in 1987, the packaging and logos were unknown. But the first packaging that Britvic introduced features the word 'Tango' on a circle with an orange background. In 1989, this was changed to the word 'Tango' (in a narrow font) in an oval on a backdrop of oranges. 1993 saw the packaging change again, with the 'Tango' logo on the fruit of whom the drink is flavoured, with a can ringtop (can opener) on the top as if the fruit was the can of whom the drink was stored in. These also appeared to be fuzzy with the Tango logo appearing fuzzy. In addition, a black background was added (making Tango the first soft drink brand to do so), and the flavour written at the bottom.

In roughly 1996, Tango packaging changed again with the words 'Tango' and the respective flavour beneath it; written on something representing the drink (for example, an orange explosion for Orange), again on a black background. Slight changes were made in 1997 giving the logo and and the representation more detail. In 2002 another revamp accoured, with even more detail, as well as the brand new flavours added. This revamp saw a more 3-D tango logo. Prehaps this series of packaging has been the best known for Tango. Even though this logo and type of packaging ceased in 2007, it still lives on for Tango Ice Bast. The Diet Tango Orange cans/bottles from this era featured a grey background instead of a black one.

2007 saw a much simple logo and design, featuring the 'Tango' logo ontop of a carved version of the fruit of whom the drink is flavoured, with the flavour written in lower case at the bottom, all over a black background (except for the 'No Added Sugar' variant where the background is grey). Maybe released to help restre sales of Tango, it saw a slight decline. Every flavour had the same overall packaging design, except coloured differently. May 2009 saw a new logo and packaging. Blue Marlin Brand Design has created the new packaging for Tango. It features mashed-up images of fruit and graffiti-style type along with its black-and-white background. This has helped a rise in sales.

List of Flavours and Variants

• Tango Orange (1950-present)
• Tango Apple (1994-present)
• Tango Lemon (1990s-unknown date) (possibly launched 1996 or 1997)
• Tango Blackcurrant (1996-unknown date)
• Tango Cherry (2002-present)
• Tango Citrus (2007-present)
• Tango Fruit Fling (2002-unknown date)
• Diet Tango Orange (1998-2007)
• Tango Orange No Added Sugar (2007-present)
• Tango Citrus No Added Sugar (2007-2009)

Note: Tango Orange was called simply 'Tango' intill 1993.

Ranges

Tango Clear (2005-2007)

• Tango Clear Apple and Watermelon (2005-2007)
• Other flavours were also released

Tango Ice Blast (2004-present)

• Tango Ice Blast Cherry (2004-present)
• Tango Ice Blast Blueberry (2004-present)
• Tango Ice Blast Bubblegum (2004-unknown date)
• Tango Ice Blast Lemon (2004-unknown date)

Tango Still (1995-1998)

• Tango Still Orange (1995-1998)

Tango Strange Soda (2002-2004)

• Tango Strange Soda Strange Strawberry (2002-2004)
• Tango Strange Soda Odd Orange (2002-2004)

Note: Tango Strange Soda was called 'Freekee Soda' intill 2003.

See also

• Ice Blast
• Tang (drink) – similarly named and flavoured US drink.

External links

• Official Tango site
• The Official Britvic Tango Page
• Save Tango Film Site
• The Ray Gardner Official Website
• Swansea residents complain