Company - 7up/Dr. Pepper
Years - 1987-1988
When I think of boring soda, I think of 7up. Now, that isn't an indictment on its taste....it does have a clean, refreshing taste that every now and again hits the spot. But lets face it, it's what your grandparents have in their fridge. It's what you give the kids when you don't want them to have caffeine. It's a good, safe, soda. Which is the reason 7up Gold was an utter and gigantic failure. It was reaching for a target demographic that wasn't even there (hip, cool people who enjoy 7up). It tried to have edge when none was needed.
What happened is that in 1987, 7up and Dr. Pepper merged into on company. Cherry 7up had just hit the market and was doing really well, so they wanted to follow that success up with another variety of 7up. But there were several reasons why that wasn't such a good idea and would lead to the soda's demise.
Flavor: Sort of an apple Cinnamon flavor, not at all what you'd expect from 7up (I'm sure the cinnamon flavor came from someone on the Dr. Pepper side...great idea, boys. If you have any more ideas, please keep them to yourself)
Color: It was a brown color. Again, not at all what you'd expect when cracking open a can of 7up (ok, when your grandparents were cracking open a can of 7up for you when you were 8)
Caffeine: Yep, it had it. Once again, to beat a dead horse (probably died drinking this swill) people who drink 7up don't expect to get any caffeine. That's why my grandparents drank it.They wanted to be able to sleep at night (or afternoon, or mid-morning.....)
Marketing: I would love to tell you that they test marketed the shit out of this stuff, and that all signs pointed to it being a smash hit, which makes it even stranger that the stuff never took off. But I can't tell you that, because it was basically rushed into production with very little testing. The company didn't want to miss the boat on the success of Cherry 7up, so they rolled it out way too quickly.
Name: Had they given this soda it's own identity, it might not have failed so hard. I'm talking a completely new brand. Instead, they kept it part of the 7up family, and instead of calling it Apple Cinnamon 7up or what-have-you, they called it GOLD. Now I don't know about you, but I don't usually drink gold, so I don't have a reference point for it's taste (actually, gold is completely tasteless and odorless, so there's that too....). So calling it Gold left the taste of the soda a mystery for consumers. And like most people, if you don't know what your buying, you don't.
The Curse: The original prototypes for the cans were made with real gold leafing, and rumor has it that gold came from the lost tombs of King Tut. Because of this, every can created on the production line was cursed, and anyone who drank it turned into a brain hungry zombie. Remember that song Zombie by the Cranberries? That was a great song.
"In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou..."
Ok, I made that last one up, there was no curse. But there may as well have been, everything else was against them on this idea. (Note: 7up DID in fact release a Cranberry 7up, which was successful, so everything came full circle there and worked out for you, the reader).
Anyway, to sum up, 7up Gold failed hard. Even the CEO of the company admitted it.
In an article in the New York Times (1988), CEO John Albers stated, ''I'll be honest. It's a failure. I've been around for a long time, and you think you learn your lessons and practice intelligent marketing, but you can be sidetracked.''
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ReplyDeleteAt age 12 when it came out, I loved 7up gold!!
ReplyDeleteAt age 12 when it came out, I loved 7up gold!!
ReplyDeleteman i miss 7up gold
ReplyDeleteMy all time favorite soda. Wish I could still buy it! More of a cinnamon/ginger ale taste to me. Like a milder Blenheim's Ginger Ale.
ReplyDeleteI was 16 when I got hooked on 7up Gold and of course it was summarily discontinued. I tracked down a fairly local distributor (four hours away) who sold me a case of it and that was my first "long distance" road trip to pick it up. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVED 7up Gold (hate regular 7up). I miss it often, think of it fondly, and fantasize about being able to find it in reproduction, or remake in similar form, or something like that, in the future.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you need some fireball
DeleteI loved it . It tasted like a ginger ale 7 up.. I wish they still made it !!
DeleteI absolutely LOVED 7up Gold (hate regular 7up). I miss it often, think of it fondly, and fantasize about being able to find it in reproduction, or remake in similar form, or something like that, in the future.
ReplyDeleteI loved that stuff! The regular was better than the diet version. I wrote 7UP to complain about its demise.
ReplyDeleteI still have several unopened cans. Loved the stuff. And when a minimart I worked for sent me to a store that had half a case still in the back, I nabbed them.
ReplyDeleteWonder how it tasted with Seagrams 7.
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ReplyDeleteThis was my absolute favorite soda of all time. It had a spice flavor, similar to Captain Morgan. And the color was in fact a gold.
ReplyDeleteI never liked regular 7-Up but I thought this stuff was fantastic and drank it exclusively as long as I could get it. My favorite sub shop on Dixie highway had it and I always got a few with a sandwich. Bought it by the case while I could.
I wish I could get it now.
This is something I wasn't sad to see go. Gross! Slice made a cherry cola I remember that was amazing!
ReplyDeleteLooks at all these people claiming they loved the soda, when more their brains are just triggered by some nostalgia. The soda was horrible. Its why it did not last long.
ReplyDeleteI really liked 7up Gold and I always wondered what happened to it.
ReplyDeleteI too loved it. I never saw the commercial, and I am guessing very few did, 'cause no one seems to have heard of it. But... those who did try it, mostly, liked it.
ReplyDeleteare the cans worth anything. never opened , but empty
ReplyDelete7up Gold was AMAZING!! My all time favorite cola and I so wish it was still around!!
ReplyDeleteI liked it as well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting trend here, many likes in the page, only 2 dislikes 3 (counting the original article)
Never saw the tv spot for it back in the day, lived in antenna-land.
and spent a majority of time outside.
may have heard a radio jingle
but honestly, don't remember if I did or not.
I remember the can being gold, but not gold leaf. I was only 5 though. Only had it twice, at a friends house. When I asked my mom to get it she said it didnt exist.
ReplyDeleteThe cans did not really contain gold leaf. That was a joke.
DeleteI LIVED for 7-Up Gold. But I do not remember it being brown, but more ginger ale colored *I was a freshman in high school). I once drank 4 in an hour and my mother thought I was on drugs. I would be interested in finding out HOW much caffeine it had.
ReplyDeleteI tried 7Up Gold. It was awful.
ReplyDeleteBest 7-up product ever. Drove a really long distance to buy the diet version. Surely the recipe still exists and with the outbreak of all sorts of flavors in sodas, this could make a good comeback, probably named something else ... Maybe the Canada Dry logo (distributed by 7-up) and that product mix would work better - easier marketing.
ReplyDeleteFound this article because of how much I loved it and hoped maybe they would release it again just for giggles. Man the author is angry about it haha. Anyway, of COURSE it wasn't actual 7UP. No one expected that...it's like expecting Pepsi when you grab a Pepsi Blue...
ReplyDelete