Sprite (soft drink)



Sprite is a colourless, caffeine-free, lemon and lime-flavoured soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company. It was first developed in West Germany in 1959 as Fanta Klare Zitrone (“Clear Lemon Fanta”) and was introduced in the United States under the current brand name Sprite in 1961 as a competitor to 7 Up. Bottles of Sprite are usually a transparent green colour with a green and yellow label whereas cans are coloured silver, green, and blue and aluminum bottles are coloured a solid lime green. Though often confused with Lemonade, Sprite stands in separate class of carbonated soft drink.

Marketing
Sprite advertising often makes use of the portmanteau word lymon, a combination of the words "lemon" and "lime".

By the 1980s, Sprite had developed a large following among teenagers. In response, Sprite began to cater to this demographic in their advertisements in 1987. “I Like the Sprite In You” was the brand’s first long-running slogan, and many jingles were produced around it before its discontinuation in 1994.

In 1994, Sprite updated their logo. This newer, more outgoing logo stood out more on packaging, and featured a blue-to-green gradient with silver “splashes” and subtle white “bubbles” in the background. The word “Sprite” had a blue backdrop shadow on the logo, and the words “Great Lymon Taste!” present on the previous logo were removed. This logo was used in the United States until 2006, and similar variants were used in other countries until this year as well.

Also in 1994, the brand’s slogan was changed to “Obey Your Thirst” and jingles including it became urban-oriented, featuring a hip-hop theme song. One of the first lyrics for the new slogan were, "Never forget yourself 'cause first things first, grab a cold, cold can, and obey your thirst.” Under the new slogan, Sprite tapped into hip-hop culture by leveraging emerging and underground rap artists like LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, Missy Elliott, Grand Puba, Common, Fat Joe, Nas, Chris Conn, Pete Ross and others in television commercials. Sprite expanded its urban connections in the late 1990s by featuring both amateur and accomplished basketball players in their advertisements. To this day, NBA players and hip-hop artists such as Lebron James and Lil Yachty frequently appear in Sprite ads.

In 1998, one commercial poked fun at products with cartoon mascots, in which a mascot for a fictitious drink called "Sun Fizz" comes to life, terrifying the kids and mother, and starts to chase them. This commercial is also notorious for ending on a Cliffhanger that remains unresolved to this day.

In the 1990s, one of Sprite's longest-running ad campaigns was "Grant Hill Drinks Sprite" (overlapping its "Obey Your Thirst" campaign), in which the well-liked basketball player's abilities, and Sprite's importance in giving him his abilities, were humorously exaggerated.

Also in the 1990s, Sprite launched the short-lived "Jooky" advert campaign. The 30-second television spots poked fun at other soft drinks' perceived lack of authenticity, ridiculous loyalty programs and, in particular, the grandiose, bandwagon-driven style of advertising popular among other soft drink manufacturers, notably Pepsi. The tagline for these spots was "Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst."

For a time, Sprite in the UK had a mascot in the form of a sickly-looking goblin (an alternate version of the normal depiction of a sprite) that would cause trouble for those unlucky enough to acquire it rather than the expected Sprite. The commercials not only used the "Obey Your Thirst" tagline, but would also use "Only one Sprite's right" or "Get the Right Sprite".



In 2000, Sprite commissioned graffiti artist Temper to design limited edition art, which appeared on 100 million cans across Europe.

In 2004, Coke created Miles Thirst, a vinyl doll voiced by Reno Wilson, used in advertising to exploit the hip-hop market for soft drinks.

In 2006, a new Sprite logo, consisting of two yellow and green "halves" forming an "S" lemon/lime design, made its debut on Sprite bottles and cans. The slogan was changed from its long running "Obey Your Thirst" to just "Obey" in the United States and was outright replaced with "Freedom From Thirst" in many countries. This was the decade's first major shift in advertising themes.

The "Sublymonal" campaign was also used as part of the alternate reality game the Lost Experience. This also resurrected the "lymon" word.

Sprite redesigned their label in 2009, removing the "S" logo.

In France in 2012, the drink was reformulated removing 30% of the sugar and replacing it with the sweetener Stevia. This led to the drink containing fewer calories. This soon spread to Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands in 2013.

Variations

 * Sprite Zero: This sugar-free version was originally produced in the United States as "Sugar Free Sprite" in 1974, then was renamed to "Diet Sprite" in 1983. In other countries, it was known as "Sprite Light". In September 2004, it was rebranded as "Diet Sprite Zero". Since then, it has become "Sprite Zero (Sprite Z)" in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Europe, India, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and New Zealand. "Diet" was dropped from the product's name, to become simply "Sprite Zero," when new logos debuted in June 2006. The "Zero" designation for low-calorie sodas from the Coca-Cola Company was first used on Diet Sprite Zero before being used on the flagship Zero product, Coca-Cola Zero.
 * Sprite Remix: Fruit-flavored variations first introduced in the United States in 2003. A different flavor was available in 2004, and finally 2005. Its production has been around 11.6 billion bottles per year. The brand was discontinued in 2005, but was reintroduced into the Coca-Cola product line up in Spring of 2015.


 * Sprite Ice: A mint-flavored Sprite that made its debut in Korea in 2002 as "Sprite Blue," "Sprite Ice" in Canada, and '"Sprite Ice Cube" in Belgium in 2003. "Sprite Ice Blue" was introduced in Italy and mainland China in 2004, and in Chile in the summer of 2005. There is also "Sprite Lemon Lime Mint".
 * Sprite Duo: A variation of Sprite with lemon juice and less carbonation and sugar that is available in Spain in cans and PET bottles. It was introduced in spring 2007.
 * Sprite on Fire: A ginger-flavored variation marketed as having a burning sensation. It was introduced in Hong Kong in 2003. This flavor also debuted in China in 2004. Available in some areas as "Sprite Finger Lemon".
 * Sprite Super Lemon: Introduced in Hong Kong in 2003.
 * Sprite Dry Lemon: Not available in U.S.
 * Sprite Lemon Lime Herb: Not available in U.S.
 * Sprite 3G: Introduced in 2007. An energy drink. Ingredients include glucose, caffeine from green coffee beans and guarana. Sprite 3G has since been discontinued in the UK.
 * Sprite Recharge: An energy drink.
 * Chinotto: Marketed as lemon-lime soda in some countries in South America as a replacement for Sprite (Sprite uses the name "Chinotto" in countries such as Venezuela). Its taste is very similar to Sprite.
 * Sprite Super Chilled: Expected as early as 2008, special packaging and vending machines were to produce ice in the bottle when it was opened.
 * Sprite Green: Announced December 17, 2008, Sprite Green was to be sweetened with Truvia (a natural zero-calorie sweetener made from stevia).
 * Sprite Cranberry: In October 2013, Coca-Cola announced a new limited-edition flavor called Sprite Cranberry and its diet version Sprite Zero Cranberry. It was available through the holiday until New Year's. In 2014 and 2015, it was available again. The variant competes with PepsiCo's Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash.
 * Sprite 6 Mix (aka Sprite LeBron's Mix): A collaboration between Sprite and LeBron James. Contains cherry and orange flavors in addition to lemon and lime.
 * Sprite Blast: A sweet and sour variation exclusive to 7-Eleven (at time of sale) and sold only in 7.5 ounce single cans. It launched in the summer of 2014. Sprite Blast was released in New Zealand in summer 2017 sold in all sizes.
 * Sprite Tropical: Sprite Tropical Remix has seen a rerelease in 2015. It was released again in 2016.
 * Sprite Cucumber: Launched in 2017 in Russia.