Sunny Delight (now marketed as SunnyD in some regions) is a popular orange-flavored drink, manufactured until recently by Procter & Gamble. It produced an estimated $450 million in revenue for Procter & Gamble in 2004.
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Sunny Delight was founded by Doric Foods of Mount Dora, Florida, in 1963.[1] It grew so popular that additional plants were built in California and Ohio, in 1974 and 1978, respectively. In 1983, Sundor Brands bought out Doric Foods; Sundor brands was then purchased by Procter & Gamble in 1989. In 2005, Sunny Delight was spun off into the independent Sunny Delight Beverages Company (SDBC). The beverage is also distributed by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. (DPSU). In Canada, the drink is manufactured and distributed by Saputo.
It was launched in Spring 1998 in the United Kingdom with a £10 million promotional campaign, and became the third biggest selling drink in the UK, behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It was sold in refrigerated cabinets and marketed as a healthy alternative to soft drinks, but this claim was brought in question. While its looks, smell and presentation may lead some to believe that it is a type of orange juice, the product's containers state (in text that is not prominent) that it contains only 5% juice. Its main ingredients are water and corn syrup. There were a series of negative press reports following an investigation by the Food Commission, an independent consumer organization. According to a BBC News report, the negative publicity escalated when a SunnyD ad showing a snowman turn orange was released at about the same time as reports of a girl who turned orange (due to the UK product's use of Beta Carotene for colour) after drinking too much Sunny Delight.[2][3] Sales had halved by 2001, and the drink was redesigned and re-launched in 2003 as "SunnyD". In the UK SunnyD was again relaunched in March 2009 with a new formulation containing 70% fruit juice and no artificial ingredients or added sugar. However, amid declining sales, the product was further reformulated in April 2010 as a lower priced beverage containing only 15% juice.[4]
In the mid-1990s, Sunny Delight sponsored an early internet contest promoting their beverage. For the game, the Reach for the Sun Bottle Hunt, simple graphics depicting Sunny Delight "bottles" were incorporated into independent American web sites. The site locations were variously personal home pages or more well-known internet resources. At the main contest site, riddles were provided weekly to help people discover each of the sites displaying a hidden bottle. Participants were encouraged to use the newest search engines in combination with the riddles. Initially appearing in 1996 and gaining widespread attention, the contest was repeated three times over the course of a year and a half, and over 4,000 prizes were awarded during each iteration, ranging from T-shirts to college scholarships. As a pioneering internet advertising meme, it set the stage for years of later web marketing promotions.[5][6]
In mid-2009, to promote the company's SunnyD Smoothies, the company partnered with Food Lion supermarkets to place SunnyD Smoothies Peel 'n Taste flavor samplers in the aisles where SunnyD products were located.[7]