7UP

 

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7 Up (or Seven 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).

 

Charles Leiper Grigg was born in 1868 in Price's Branch, Missouri. As an adult, Grigg moved to St. Louis and started working in advertising and sales, where he was introduced to the carbonated beverage business.

 

By 1919, Charles Leiper Grigg was working for a manufacturing company owned by Vess Jones. It was there that Grigg invented and marketed his first soft drink called "Whistle".

 

 

Seven 7 Up green red ring logo

 

 

After a dispute with management, Charles Leiper Grigg quit his job (giving away "Whistle") and started working for the Warner Jenkinson Company, developing flavoring agents for soft drinks. Grigg invented then his second soft drink called called "Howdy". When he eventually moved on from Warner Jenkinson Co., he took his soft drink "Howdy" with him.

 

Together with financier Edmund G. Ridgway, Grigg went on to form the Howdy Company. So far, Grigg had invented two orange-flavored soft drinks. But his soft drinks struggled against the king of all orange pop drinks, "Orange Crush". "Orange Crush" grew to dominate the market for orange sodas.

 

Charles Leiper Grigg decided to focus on lemon-lime flavors and and by in October of 1929 he had invented a new drink called, "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas".

 

The name was quickly changed to " 7 Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime" and then again quickly changed to just plain 7up.  7up merged with "Dr Pepper" in 1986.

 

 

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". 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. 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 

 

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 . 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. . 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 the 7 Up name is unclear. One popular story is that its creator named the soft drink after seeing a cattle brand with the number 7 and the letter u. 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 carbonation (the bubbles go "up"). Other ideas include that the original bottle contained seven ounces, or that its creator came up with the name while playing dice, or that even it was the 7th large commercial lemonade brand that tasted the same. There is also the rumor that the name was created because the company had previously failed six times, hence the name "7-up". Before the formula change in 2006, looking on a can of 7up included 7 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. This is not the case: the pH of 7 Up is comparable to many other soft drinks. At a pH of 3.67, Diet 7 Up is less acidic than lemon juice (pH 2.3), vinegar (pH 2.9) or wine (pH 3.5)

 

However, the best possibility is that the drink is named after "Seven up", a card game.

 

 

Seven 7Up lemon lime carbonated drink can 355ml green and white

 

A can of 7-Up

 

 

History

 

Charles Grigg 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. The product's name was soon changed to 7 Up.

 

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. 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.

 

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

 

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

 

After establishing the category as more than a niche, major competitors 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.

 

Philip Morris acquired The Seven Up Company in June 1978. 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.

 

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.

 

The result is that in the United States, DPSU does 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 by Cadbury-Schweppes, or by individual independent bottling plants such as Vineland Syrup of Vineland, New Jersey and Polar Beverages of Worcester, Massachusetts. These bottlers often do not distribute their products much beyond major supermarket chains, so 7 Up can be difficult to find in smaller stores and vending machines.

 

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

 

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

 

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. This re-formulation contains no fruit juice and is still sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The manufacturing process used to produce HFCS has led some public health and special interest groups to challenge the ad campaign's "natural" claims. 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, 2007 7up launched a range of flavoured water.

 

 

Listen

 

 

New 7Up (seven) natural can design

 

Natural (claimed) 7-Up design

 

 

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.

 

 

Trivia

  • 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.

  • In 1983, a 7 Up commercial was aired in Chile with the slogan "Seven Up, cristalina y refrescante" ("Seven Up, crystalline and refreshing"). It was voiced by Antonio Vodanovic, host of the Song's International Festival of Viña del Mar.

  • In the late 1990s, 7 Up adopted the slogan "Make 7 Up Yours." They made shirts that said "Make Seven" on the front and "Up Yours" on the back. Ads featured Orlando Jones walking down a street talking about 7 Up, with people looking shocked because of the phrase "up yours". The ads and slogan quickly became popular, but the campaign was fairly short-lived.

  • 7 Up also sold "un-Cola" drinking glasses, which inverted the shape of the Coca-Cola glass.

  • Jamie Hyneman from M5 Industries built a robotic 7-Up vending machine that shoots soda cans at people. It was used in a 7-Up commercial. The robot has since been dismantled for its motor to lift an elevator in one of the MythBusters episode.

  • A 7 Up bottle cap is found as a treasure in the Nintendo Gamecube videogame Pikmin 2

 

 

 

Ownership

 

7 Up (or Seven Up) is a brand of a lemon-lime flavored soft drink. The franchise for the brand is held by Dr Pepper/Seven Up in the United States, by Britvic in Great Britain, by C&C in Ireland and by PepsiCo in the rest of the world.

 

The product has been reformulated several times since its launch in 1929; in 2006, it underwent another reformulation, becoming "100% Natural" with five ingredients: "filtered carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, natural citric acid, natural flavors, natural potassium citrate".

 

The origin of the 7 Up name is not clear. The most popular story is that its creator named the soft drink after seeing a cattle brand with the number 7 and the letter u. Other rumors suggest that the name reflects the drink's seven flavors and carbonation, that the bottle contained seven ounces, that its creator came up with the name while playing dice, or that even it was the 7th large commercial lemonade brand that taste the same.

 

 

 

 

 

Advertising

 

  • According to the Dr Pepper/Seven Up website, the earliest advertising for 7 Up featured a winged logo; the ad described it as a "glorified drink" with "[s]even natural flavors blended into a savory, flavory drink with a real wallop."

  • During most of the 1950's, 7up's slogan was Fresh Up! With 7up.

  • In the early to mid 1960's, 7up was advertised as being Wet & Wild.

  • In 1967, a successful advertising campaign dubbed 7 Up The Uncola and helped cause a major increase in sales by positioning the product as a "thirst-quenching alternative to colas." This campaign lasted well into the mid 1970's.

  • In 1968, 7up utilized the style made successful by Peter Max (who did Yellow Submarine and whos style was being heavily used in advertising at the time) in one of it's commercials, this one for a contest called "The Un-Thing" where a plethora of prizes were offered.

  • Robert Abel and Associates concocted a commercial for 7up in 1974 using their pioneering computer generated special effects. The advertising campaign was now known as See The Light of 7up.

  • Athletes Sugar Ray Leonard (with his young son at the time) and Tug McGraw appeared in separate 7up commercials during the late 1970's and the early 1980's. The advertising campaign this time was Feeling 7up.

  • A "No Caffeine" campaign started in 1982 was a response to growing consumer concern and confusion about caffeine in soft drinks. The campaign prompted the soft drink industry to produce new caffeine-free products.

  • In the early 1980's the video game Pac-Man was utilized with 7up in a computer animated rendition of the game.

  • The brand has been represented by mascots including Fido Dido and Cool Spot, a sunglasses-sporting red dot.

  • During the early 1980s, actor/choreographer Geoffrey Holder appeared in several commercials, tweaking soft drink rivals by holding a kola nut in one hand and an "un-Cola nut" (a lemon or lime) in the other. Holder had first appeared in 7up ads in the late 1960's - early 1970's.

  • Sonia Couling became a 7 Up spokesperson in 1988, starting the foremost model of Thailand on her career at the age of 14.

  • More recent advertising campaigns have challenged consumers with slogans such as "Are you an Un?", portraying 7 Up drinkers as rebellious non-conformists, and "Make 7 Up Yours", implying an aggressive double meaning by separating the slogan into "Make 7" and "Up Yours".

  • In 2005, 7 Up announced that it would be awarding one customer a free ticket to Space.

 

 

 

LINKS and REFERENCE

 

History of Pop
Timeline of the entire history of soft drinks.
Introduction to Pop - History of Soft Drinks 

7up
The official and really cool website for 7up.

7up Soda Display
Vintage 7up bottles and display item

 

 

 

 

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This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2007  NJK.  The bird logo & name Solar Navigator and Solar Cola are trademarks. All rights reserved.  All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged. Max Energy Limited is an educational charity.

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