| Type | Carbonated soft drink |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Britvic |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1950 |
| Colour | Various |
| Variants | See Flavours and variants |
| Related products | 7 Up Fanta Tizer Pepsi |
Tango is a carbonated soft drink sold primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland and from 2010 in Sweden, Norway and Hungary as well, first launched by Corona in 1950. Corona were bought by the Beecham Group in 1958, and Beecham Soft Drinks were bought by Britvic in 1987.[1] In Scandinavia the drink is distributed by SMX Drinks AB.
Originally, Tango was the name of the orange flavour in a range of different flavoured drinks that each had their own name. In the 1990s, long after the other products in the range had passed into obscurity, the Tango brand was expanded into other flavours, including apple, lemon, cherry, blackcurrant, and later "Fruit Fling". Some of these have since been discontinued; as of August 2011, the flavours available in the United Kingdom are Orange, Apple, Cherry and Citrus.
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Advertisements for Tango were originally largely unremarkable (apart from some humorous ads), but since the 1990s they have become well-known for their distinctively bizarre and often postmodern tone. The advertisements are arguably now more talked-about than the product itself, and manufacturer Britvic's own Tango brand page states that "Today Tango is probably most famous for its successful and innovative marketing campaigns".[1]
The first "ironic" campaign introduced the now-common catchphrase "You know when you've been Tango'd", produced by advertising agency HHCL. The campaign began in 1991 with an ad featuring a man being slapped around the face by a portly man painted orange (Peter Geeves) immediately after drinking Tango. It received widespread condemnation after a craze for "Tangoing" people swept the nation's playgrounds, and there were reports of children receiving serious injuries or even being deafened by being slapped on the ears. It has also been suggested that young children were too weak to cause such damage and that it was in fact students who had injured themselves. Whatever the truth, Tango voluntarily replaced the "slapping" advert with an almost-identical new version where the orange-clad person kisses the man instead of hitting him. However, the original version was named the 3rd best television commercial of all time in a 2000 poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4. Most subsequent Tango advertisements have avoided showing violence, except for an ad in 2004 which was again banned because of violence, and the 1997 'Vote Orange Now' advert, where the orange clad man makes another appearance (although probably played by another person), slapping the main man in the advert several times just before the advert finishes. This latter advert was featured in the first advert-break on Channel 5.[2]
Other advertisements in the campaign featured:
Further slogans used include "You need it because you're weak" (for Diet Tango) and "Feed the Tango Inside".
A major revamp for the drink in 1996 included an "Apple Tango Calendar" given free with the Daily Star.[3]
After various other ads, like the "We Drink Tango Don't You Know" ads of 1998-1999 and "Feed The Tango Inside!" ad of 2001, Tango brought back their famous "You Know When You've Been Tango'd" slogan in a brand new set of adverts, which would feature scientists performing unnecessary stunts. These adverts were used for Tango Orange and Tango Apple. The adverts lasted from 2002 to 2005.
In 2003, to advertise Tango Apple was a "Big drench tour", a roadshow of a a 30 ft-tall apple-shaped installation filled with water. Players must stand underneath and take part in a game of 'drench roulette' to win prizes.[4]
In 2008, Tango launched a campaign called 'Save Tango', due to a drop of sales in the drink.
In 2009, Tango turned their can designs upside-down following a "dare" from social networking site bragster in a drive to increase sales.
A 2009 UK billboard campaign extolled the "weird and wonderful" side effects of drinking too much "Tango with added Tango Orange" (such as "Too much Tango made me suck a bull's udder").[5] The British press pointed out that the initials of "Tango With Added Tango" spelled the insult "twat" when read vertically, and this was later revealed to be intentional.[6]
One of their television advertisements on TV, entitled Pipes, was banned in November 2004 in fear of imitation and harm.
Tango advertisements have sometimes featured phone numbers for viewers to call. One such advertisement purported to show secretly-shot footage of a cult that worships a rubber doll, and those who called the on-screen number were able to purchase a replica of the doll. The Tango Doll line consisted of yes and no questions, but the person speaking to the caller always replied "We heard you say... yes!", regardless of what the caller said, and said they passed the test to be part of the cult, and would be sent a doll.
Tango also aired phone number advertisements where another cult worshipped a man called "Jim", in which the character would interrupt embarrassing situations to shout "It's a Lemon Tango Moment". The Lemon Tango adverts aired in 1996.[7]
A 1993 commercial was disguised as a product recall, in which a man, who claimed to work for "Tango Limited", warns people not to buy any Still Tango as the company only makes fizzy drinks. Viewers were told not to consume the product, and to call the number on screen. The phone line message was a loop of "You known when you've been Tango'd!" In another advert a rave is shown, with an announcer saying "Still Tango is only available in selected outlets!"
Another advertised line was for "Apple Seduction", in which the first advertisement showed a can of Apple Tango telephoning a man at work, insisting that he say "kiss my big juicy apples" into the telephone. Another "Apple Seduction" advert saw a can of Apple Tango telephoning a man at home, and telling him to run down to the supermarket and buy a can of Apple Tango. These advertisements started in 1994, and ended in 1997.
A phoneline that ran from 1997 to 2000 was for a Tango Megaphone, and enabled the caller to "Shout down non-Tango drinkers". The line did not require the caller to answer questions but to give their postal address and name. The call opened with a woman yelling "Stand up straight!" to the caller. The leading advert, which featured James Corden in character as James Roydon getting yelled at by ginger-hair Tango drinkers through the megaphones because he is not a Tango drinker, was banned after ten days following it's airing because of 67 complaints describing the advert's events as bullying. The replacement was a non-offensive advert, Drink Tango: It's Nice.
Exclusive Tango items that could be won or purchased through phonelines, or through other methods like a competition, include Tango Doll (1993), Horn (1997), Megaphone (2000), Radio Hat (1989), "60s Soul Sounds" cassette (1988), Sofa (1998), Mini-fridge (2008), Lunchbox (2000) and Gotans (2005) (the Gotans were a set of four halloween-style characters.) In 1998, Tango gave people a chance to win a "Tango football shrine" made up of a widescreen television, the sofa, platter of meat products, table football, football rug and mini floodlights. In 1996, instead of a phone line, Tango set up a Ceefax page (Ceefax 385) for the reintroduced Still Tango drink.
In early 2006 an advertising campaign for 'Tango Clear' was launched, parodying the 'Balls' themed advertisement for Sony BRAVIA LCD televisions. The original Sony advert consisted of thousands of coloured balls as they bounce down the roads of San Francisco. The Tango advert was set in Swansea and featured fruit instead of coloured balls, using the same production style and the same music track by Jose Gonzalez. It also copies almost exactly the moment from the Bravia advert when a frog leaps out from a drainpipe. It parodies Sony's slogan 'Colour.like.no.other' with 'Refreshment like no other', finishing the advert with "It's clear when you've been Tango'd"
A parody website was also set up alongside the advert, purporting to be the "Swansea North Residents Association".[8] According to the website, the filming of the advert: left large amounts of fruit matter across the streets, caused damage to property, scared wildlife and residents, and was unaccompanied by financial compensation. Visitors can sign a petition and view the original advert in a variety of formats.
Following the advert, another Tango Clear advert was made. This featured a woman being sprayed with water by various out of place people in her office. When asked by other workers, she says they are 'just a metaphor'.
In 1999, Tango teamed up with the newspapers Daily Mail and Daily Record to extend their summer peak sells period in a unique campaign called "Tango Time". The main thread of the campaign activity was a competition where a time of day is printed on the base of cans of Tango. The winning 'Tango Time' was published in the Daily Mirror and Daily Record and winners invited to call a prize claim line. The newspaper adverts were trailed by branding on the front page, including a free offer for a bottle of Tango. The ads containing the winning 'Tango Time' ran for 26 days in August 1999.[9]
The images were "backed" by two advertising characters, the "T-Ladies", who drink Tango (in relation to "We Drink Tango Don't You Know", the parent campaign of the 1998-1999 peroid). The prizes and winning times were carefully chosen to ensure that the adverts appeared in a variety of sections with the newspapers. One days' prize was a "city slicker pack" (filofax, calculator etc.) with the winning time of 06:45, start-up time in the city. The winning 'Tango Time' ad appeared in the City Slicker editorial section. Another example was the chance to win £200, with the winning time of 09:30 - when the banks open. This 'Tango Time' appeared in the Mirror Money section.[9] The campaign worked, with Tango claiming they were "delighted" with the results.
Blackcurrant Tango is a carbonated soft drink launched in the UK by Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd in 1996. The drink is notable for the multi award winning 1997 TV commercial,[11] St George, which was used to promote it. The drink has since been discontinued. A previous ad for the drink aired in 1996. Blackcurrant Tango was relaunched in 2011 as an exclusive flavour to Asda in the UK.
For the launch of Blackcurrant Tango in 1996 HHCL produced the "St. George" television and cinema advertisement. In the advertisement a member of Tango's customer service staff, Ray Gardner, provides a response to a letter of complaint about the flavour of Blackcurrant Tango he has received from a French exchange student. The letter prompts an increasingly jingoistic tirade during which Ray Gardner removes his suit to reveal bright purple boxing shorts. In one continuous take he walks from his office, marches out of Tango's building and is joined by a flag waving crowd as he enters a boxing ring. As the camera pulls back it is revealed that the ring is perched on the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover. As the camera circles, Gardner can be heard shouting, Come on France, Europe, the world. I'll take you all on! I'm Ray Gardner. I drink Blackcurrant Tango. Come and get me! whilst three Harrier Jump Jets with purple landing lights hover in the background.
The advertisement was notable for the use of digital editing to seamlessly merge a number of tracking shots including the final transition from a sky camera to a helicopter shot. Ray Gardner later won the "ITV Best Actor In A Commercial" Award for his performance. The commercial was voted the best long commercial (1956–2001) by the UK's Film4 TV channel in June 2007. The song that appeared in the advertisement, "Don't You Want Me" by Felix, was rereleased with Tango branding.
The first packaging that Britvic introduced, upon buying the brand in 1987, featured the word 'Tango' on a circle with an orange background. In 1989, this was changed to the word 'Tango' in a narrow font, inside an oval on a backdrop of oranges. 1992 saw the packaging change again, with the 'Tango' logo depicted on the fruit the drink was flavoured with against a black background, with the flavour specified at the bottom.
In early 1996, Tango packaging changed again, with the words 'Tango' and the respective flavour written on something representing the drink (for example, an orange explosion for Tango Orange). Slight changes were made in 1997 adding more detail. In 2002 another revamp occurred, with a more three-dimensional logo. The design was dropped in 2007, although is still used by Tango Ice Blast. The Diet Tango Orange products from this era featured a grey background instead of a black one.
The summer of 2007 saw a much simpler logo and design, featuring the 'Tango' logo on top of a carved version of the fruit, with the flavour written in lower case at the bottom. Intended to help restore sales of Tango, it actually led to a further decline. May 2009 saw new packaging created by Blue Marlin Brand Design. It featured mashed-up images of fruit and graffiti-style type, and contributed to a rise in sales.
For limited edition variations of Tango, special packaging has sometimes been produced for them. Notably, the 'Tango Talk' rebrand of Tango Orange and Tango Apple featured a mobile phone in place of the flavour representation featured on regular versions of the flavours at the time. The 2009 larger can packaging of Tango Orange known as "Tango with Added Tango Orange" featured more oranges in the background. The same can be said for the 2010 "King Tango" Tango Orange bottles. More apples were used in the packaging for King Tango Apple and more cherries for King Tango Cherry.
The labelling of the short lived Tango Strange Soda featured a "strange" fruit with facial features, patterned after the name and flavour of the drink. "Tango Orange Sound System: Official Can", a 2010 repackaging of the notably large "Tango with Added Tango Orange" featured speakers on the can, in place of the mashed-up fruit. Both these large cans were advertised as "the first time Tango cans are larger". This is not true, as from 1991 until roughly 2000, all Tango flavours could be purchased in similar size larger cans. The large cans, at the initial 1991 launch, were called "King-Size".
Short lived 250ml bottles of Tango were introduced in 2000 as part of a £42m campaign by Britvic to market their drinks as being suitable for children's lunch boxes. The campaign also introduced the popular Robinson's line of juice drinks Fruit Shoot.[12]
Tango Cherry and Tango Lemon were first to feature the 2002 revamp,[13] getting the treatment in September 2001.
Tango Strange Soda was called 'Freekee Soda' until 2003.
The 'King Tango' drinks are simply bigger bottles of Tango. The 'Tangoooh!' and 'Tango with Added Tango' drinks have slight taste differences. "Tango with Added Tango" and "Tango Orange Sound System: Official Can" are sold in larger cans.
In 2001, special versions of Tango Orange and Tango Apple were released as 'Tango Talk Orange' and 'Tango Talk Apple'. However, these were the same drinks and the rebrand was purely due to a competition offered on those bottles. 2010 saw Tango Orange, Apple and Cherry rebranded as 'Chilled Tango' versions, with messages hidden under heat-sensitive ink which were only visible when the drinks were chilled to the correct temperature.[16] The drinks were also advertised as tasting "cold" even when served at room temperature.
Turbo Tango was described as the 'first aerosol drink'.
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