Thursday, October 16, 2014

The Fishing Advertisement: 7up (1964)


When I was a kid, 7up was the drink of adults. It was also the drink my mother gave me when I was home sick from school. Thus, when Sprite arrived on the scene during my childhood, I gravitated towards it. After all, it had youthful advertising behind it, immediately became widely available, and I didn’t have to drink jt only after I had thrown up. 7up quickly disappeared from my life.

One day in my adult years, I asked for a Sprite from a friend of mine and he gave me instead a 7up. Not having had one in about 20 years, and not having great memories of it, I turned my nose up. But given the alternative, I decided to bite the bullet.

Guess what? I discovered that 7up really is better than Sprite, at least to adult me. No wonder this 1964 ad touts it as “the man’s mixer.” Now I wouldn’t mix it with a double finger of Lagavullin … but it definitely beats Sprite hands down.

I like that the image the advertisers chose to attach to 7up was big game fishing. It’s a cool ad from the Mad Men era of Madison Avenue.



— Dr. Todd

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