I became interested in pop bottles (I grew up in the Chicago area where we all said “pop”) and related stuff when I was about 12 years old. I had gone inside an old garage that was attached to a neighborhood house that was being torn down and inside was a cache of un-returned pop bottles that must have dated from the 1940-50’s period. I took one of each type home (about 20 of ’em) and yes, still have them to this day. I really got off on all the different labels and colors of glass and because I used to like to read old magazines I actually recognized most of the brands that were no longer around or had changed their design. I’ll go into this more in a future post, but wanted to lay some sort of a foundation for this piece which is exclusively on 7Up, with a special focus on their branding efforts of the 1950’s.
The soft drink that would be known as 7Up was created in 1929 by Charles Leiper Grigg in St.Louis as part of his “Howdy” line of sodas and was originally called “Bib-Label Lithiated (it contained the mood stabilizer lithium citrate until 1950) Lemon-Lime Soda”. It was almost immediately re-labeled “7 (7 natural flavors) Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime”, and then finally just “7Up”.
The first 7Up logo from 1929.
In terms of logos, an original winged trademark soon gave way to the red squared logo that lasted until the late 1960’s that coincided with the that period’s brilliant “Uncola” re-branding campaign. I always felt they had GOLD in that Uncola moniker. . .
A 1935 7Up label before the Howdy Company's name was changed to 7Up in 1936, followed by two Howdy beverage labels.
By the late 1940’s 7Up was the third most popular soft drink in the United States. By the time the 1950’s rolled around, the company had employed extensive branding techniques to keep the momentum going. The following 3 binders contain examples of what was offered to the bottlers and distributors to reinforce the product’s presence.
A catalog of 7Up sales/marketing items circa 1954.
This page includes tipped-in glossy paint chips.
These next 3 pages would NEVER fly with the HR Dept in 2012. . .
Before everyone had TV's in their home, it was common to go out to watch television.
7Up Sales & Promotion Merchandise Catalog circa 1954 – 59.
(would love to have those binders. . .)
Actual cloth swatches included.
More swatches.
1959 "Salesmakers" Catalogue
2 actual decals using the older logo with the woman reaching for bubbles- love the way the color is broken down into separate shapes and levels.
Actual booklet attached.
"Fresh Up Freddie" was the 7Up mascot created in 1957 by ad agency Leo Burnett and Walt Disney to help sponsor the Disney "Zorro" TV series.
Here’s a link to more info on “Freddie”: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/fresh-up-freddy.html
Remember, it's from 1959. . .
Ditto. . .
2 mid-1930's 7Up bottles.
Left: 1940's bottle with 8 bubbles on label. Right: 1950's bottle 7 bubbles.
"Like" was introduced in 1963 as a diet version of 7Up. It contained Calcium Cyclamate which was determined to be a carcinogen in 1969. "Like" was discontinued in that same year and Diet 7Up was introduced in 1970 sans the Cyclamates. This bottle is dated 1964.
Late 1960's/early 1970's can.
"The Uncola".
As a final footnote, I was lucky enough to work on spots for 7Up International using the Susan Rose/Joanna Ferrone character “Fido Dido” ! Here’s one of my favorites done while I was at The Ink Tank Studio in NY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JpHjeGXyw8
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About J. J. Sedelmaier
As President/Director of J. J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc., he is responsible for launching some of the most talked about broadcast animated productions of the past two decades – MTV’s “Beavis and Butt-Head”, SNL’s “Saturday TV Funhouse” series with Robert Smigel (“The Ambiguously Gay Duo”, “The X-Presidents”, etc.), Cartoon Network/Adult Swim’s “Harvey Birdman – Attorney at Law”, and the “Tek Jansen/Alpha Squad Seven” series for The Colbert Report. Sedelmaier has produced over 500 film and design pieces. He has been a professor at NYU, teaching Intermediate Animation and History Of Animation courses, and has curated design and animation exhibits at The Society Of Illustrators, Milwaukee's Grohmann Museum and Westchester Arts Council. In addition, he’s a very organized hoarder.View all posts by J. J. Sedelmaier →