11 Comments
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Rich Linville's avatar

Entertaining read. Great investigative reporting! Pondering applying for TM on Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda

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Emma Baccellieri's avatar

hahah yes someone's gotta do it now!

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Mike Rengel's avatar

This is the investigative reporting I crave! I bow down to how deep you dug for this.

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Sue Shawn Says's avatar

Subscribing based on this post alone.

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Matt Martell's avatar

This is exactly the deranged investigative rabbit hole reporting that I depend upon you for — thank you SO much!

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Ethan L. Renner's avatar

Incredible work.

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Ryan's avatar

What a great scoop!

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Sarcastic_Mike's avatar

Ahhhh! A deep dive into Soda lore is as refreshing as an ice cold bib label lithiated lemon lime soda, no matter the name.

Thanks, from a fellow demented soda obsessive.

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Robert Treat's avatar

As a researcher, collector, and archivist of 7Up UnCola posters and 21'x10 billboards issued during the award winning #7UpUnCola ad campaign (1969-1975 +/-), I find this to be truly great research. Kudos for digging deep and setting the record straight! I will help spread the word and give you credit.

Your sentence “This was, it seemed, the sort of claim that gets repeated often enough to become accepted as fact” is something that I keep fighting to this day in my own world. Nearly 99% of all 7Up UnCola paraphernalia & images marketed on eBay and other sites are labeled as being by (or inspired by) Peter Max. Search for <Peter Max 7Up> and filter by "images" and you’ll see what I mean. In fact, his only contribution to the 7Up campaign was his design for an insulated cooler "premium" during the later years of the ad campaign. Most other images were signed by up-and-coming artists, many who are now famous. As an example, Milton Glaser (Push Pin Studios) did 2 UnCola billboards for 7Up in 1971 before he created the "I [heart] NY" logo in 1976.

Learn more and/or see the 55+ colorful billboard images by searching <7Up UnCola billboards>.

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MD's avatar

Based on the copy of those old ads, my theory for the name origin is that it has a pH higher than seven. It seems like a major selling point was it's "alkaline reaction".

I'll look forward to your deep dive on Brad's Drink aka Pepsi!

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Andrew O'Hara's avatar

Make 7Up yours!

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