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.

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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. Subsequent Tango advertisements have avoided showing violence. Other advertisments in the campaign feature a man shout "Oranges" into a woman's ear whilst she is waiting for a train at a train station. One 1994 advertisment featured man dressed up like Napoleon wearing an orange glove, and rubbing into into a man's face. Another 1994 advertisment featured an orange-painted man wearing a kilt with no legs and a blue afro hairstyle (known as the "Flying Scotsman") who was flying to find his missing foot.

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

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. Another phone number in a 1993 commercial was disguised as a product recall, in which a man who claimed to work for "Tango limited", was warning people not to buy any Still Tango as the company will always make fizzy drinks, and if they already bought one not to consume it, but call the number on screen even if they seen one. The phone line message was a repeat of "You known when you've been Tango'd!", until the caller chose to replace their handset. The product was made by the company, and also seen an advertising campaign in which a rave is shown, with an announcer saying "Still Tango is only available in selected outlets!". Tango Lemon 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 appeares suddely and shouts "It's a Lemon Tango Moment".

Another advertised line was for "Apple seduction", in which the first ad showed an apple can of Tango telephoned a man at work, and was told by the drinks can to say "Kiss my big juicy apples", and said it twice while being told to say it louder, in which he yelled the line. Afterwards a can of apple flavoured 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, was a series of questions in 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 same can of apple Tango telephoned a man who was in his house. The man was told to run down to the supermarket and buy a can of apple Tango. After doing so, the number was written down on the screen.

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. 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 Shepard", and the parcel containing the doll would have this as the receiver's middle name on the delivery address. The message also played shown appreciation for carpet burns.

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 brang back their famous "You Know When You've Been Tango'd" slogan in a brand new set of adverts, which would feature scientests do unnecessary stunts. These adverts were used for Tango Orange and Tango Apple. The adverts lasted from 2002 to 2005.

In 2008/2009 tango launched a campaign called 'Save Tango', this was due to the demise 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.

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.

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