The Awesome Evolution of Tropicana
Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 06:19PM 1947: Tropicana Products is founded. The young company hand-delivers glass jars of its patented "Orange Milk" to West Florida homes.
1960: Considered "radical" and "Communist" at the time, Tropicana endures through its early years as a juice-maker. The jar is eventually replaced with the tin can and Tropicana diversifies ever so briefly into other product lines and markets including fashion, automotive, and America's perennial money-maker, prostitution.
1972: Tropicana introduces its first mascot, the very non-racist Tropic Ana. She would serve, until 1998, as the face of the company, smiling Asian-ly (and toplessly!) while perpetually carrying a cranium-load of oranges.
1983: A Tampa bartender invents the "Good Times Juice Cocktail," consisting of Tropicana orange juice, vodka and cocaine. The coke is later removed and the concoction is renamed the "Screwdriver." High schools across the country rejoice.
1996: Tropicana rebrands for the 17th time, now adopting the solid carton we know today with it's ubiquitous old-timey-candy-cane-straw-in-an-orange motif.
2001: Always looking forward (and still a little backward) Tropicana's marketing team decides to experiment once again with sex-appeal. Much to human kind's disapproval.
2004: Accommodating the Hockey Moms, Nascar Dads and Sam's Club Cousins of America, Tropicana launches the Jugg. These three liters of juice would later become known colloquially as the "Fridge Buster" and the "Detergent Mistaker."
2005: Finally, Tropicana finds a market that is receptive to sexy advertising: France.
2007: Smelling the oncoming recession, Tropicana downgrades the Jugg to the Vase, a sleeker, "faster" economy container. They also shaved 7 ounces of juice from each Vase while maintaining the same price per unit.
2008: Now firmly a part of the PepsiCo brand (under which all name beverages have rebranded), Tropicana unveils it's 18th re-envisioning of itself. Realizing that the Tropic Ana logo reminded consumers of a raped culture and the grove-picked orange theme reminded consumers of Mexican workers, the new minimalist container features only juice, reminding consumers that orange juice is, in fact yellow. Just like the original glass jar showed us back in 1947.
Reader Comments (4)
I think I need to stop reading Hey Mister. I find myself staring at logos and thinking, "what is the motivation behind this piece?" Before I just didn't give a fuck.
omg, your blog kills me.
btw, Orangina in France took sexy to the next level:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2007/11/orangina-gives-.html
I wonder when Pepsi is going to start advertising their other drinks like they do Pepsi Cola. They have been going the extra mile to promote pepsi cola for as long as I can remember, but their other drinks seem to get neglected. Now that they are using social media to advertise, I think it will be wise for them to give their other products more attention.
You forgot to mention when they stopped using all-Florida juice and started adding (poisoned) Brazilian juice