Tango (drink)

Tango is a carbonated soft drink sold primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 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.

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 and blackcurrant. The lemon and blackcurrant flavours have been discontinued and Fruit Fling has replaced them.

Advertisements

Advertisements for Tango were originally serious and unremarkable, but since the 1990s they have become well-known for their distinctively bizarre and often post-modern 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".

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 an orange-clad person (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. Subsequent Tango advertisements have avoided showing violence.

Other slogans used include "You need it because you're weak" (for diet tango) and "Feed the Tango Inside".

Tango advertisements have sometimes featured phone numbers for viewers to call. One such advert 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. Another phone number in a 1993 commercial was disguised as a product recall, in which a man who claimed to work for "Tango limited", was warning people not to buy any Still Tango as the company will always make fizzy drinks, and if they already bought one not to consume it, but call the number on screen even if they seen one. The phone line message was a repeat of "You known when you've been Tangoe'd!", until the caller chose to replace their handset. The product was made by the company, and also seen an advertising campaign in which 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 an apple can of Tango telephoned a man at work, and was told by the drinks can to say "Kiss my big juicy apples", and said it twice while being told to say it louder, in which he yelled the line. Afterwards a can of apple flavoured Tango is shown alongside a phone number, with a voiceover saying "If Apple seduction is taking over your life, call", with the advert finishing too fast making it purposely hard for the number to be memorised or written down. The number if dialed, was a series of questions in which the caller gave yes or no answers after a tone was sounded. One of the questions was "Do the colours purple and green, remind you of your mother?".

One phone line, and the latest line to date in which a Tango product can be purchased was in 2000 for a Tango Megaphone, enabling the user 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 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. A new name was later given to the caller, with that usually being "Soft Shepard", and the parcel containing the doll would have this as the receiver's middle name on the delivery address. The message also played shown appreciation for carpet burns.

The Tango "gene"

The Tango gene was one advertising campaign that warned viewers that if they didn't purchase Tango, the Tango gene would be inserted into other edible items, after which came an advertisement proclaiming "You know when you've had sprouts". The Tango gene advert seen a man given a piece of paper, and told to read it out, in which the warning was given before in fast-speed a leprechaun came on screen and cleaned his face with a duster, before a man comes on screen and says "Right, stop that!" before telling the audience that they have so many days to do them what they want, by calling the number on screen. When the advert ends a dancing couple appear on screen for a few seconds.

The phone line seen an annoyed man telling the caller a series of demands, which changed every week. If they didn't do them then the gene of the Tango will be put into "the food chain". The man used to assume the tasks were not being done, and once said "You don't know how serious this is!!". One of the demands was to "vigorously" shake up a can of orange Tango and put it on a friends doorstep, before ringing the bell and running away.

Blackcurrant Tango

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, [http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/blackcurrant_tango/index.html 'St. George'] St George, which was used to promote it. The drink has since been discontinued.

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. It was written and art directed by Chas Bayfield and Jim Bolton and was directed by Colin Gregg.

ony Bravia parody

In early 2006 an advertising campaign for 'Tango Clear' was launched, parodying the Sony BRAVIA LCD TV adverts. 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". 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.

Aspartame

In recent years the artificial sweetener Aspartame has been used in Tango, which has led to a subtle difference in taste. It is suspected that this has been done as Aspartame is cheaper than sugar.

ee also

* Ice blast

External links

* [http://www.britvic.com/Brand.aspx?id=41 The Official Britvic Tango Page]
* [http://www.raygardner.net The Ray Gardner Official Website]
* [http://www.tango.co.uk/ Official Tango site]

References