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7 Up is a brand of a lemon-lime flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The rights to the brand are held by Dr Pepper Snapple Group in the United States, and PepsiCo (or its licensees) in the rest of the world. The 7 Up logo includes a red spot between the '7' and 'Up', this red spot has been animated and used as a mascot for the brand.One popular myth is that its creator named the soft drink after seeing a cattle brand with the number 7 and the letter U.[1] Other theories suggest that the drink was formulated with seven flavors plus the bubbles from the drink's carbonation (the bubbles go up). Other ideas include the original bottle contained seven ounces; its creator came up with the name while playing dice; that it was the 7th large commercial lemonade brand that tasted the same. Another rumor has it that the name was created because the company had previously failed six times, hence the name "7 Up".[1] Before the formula change in 2006, a can of 7 Up included seven ingredients. The "Up" in the drink's name might refer to the original inclusion of lithium citrate, when it was marketed as a patent medicine to cure hangovers.
Some people mistakenly believe that the name 7 Up comes from the belief that its pH is 7.0 and therefore neutral. This is not the case at all: the pH of 7 Up is comparable to many other soft drinks. At a pH of 3.67,[2] Diet 7 Up is less acidic than lemon juice (pH 2.3), vinegar (pH 2.9) or wine (pH 3.5).[3]
[edit] History
7 Up was created by Charles Leiper Grigg who launched his St. Louis-based company The Howdy Corporation in 1920.[1] Grigg came up with the formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929. The product, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[1] It contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. It was one of a number of patent medicine products popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries; they made claims similar to today's health foods. Specifically it was marketed as a hangover cure. The product's name was soon changed to 7 Up.[1]
The Great Depression was just the beginning of the business challenges the product would face. In its early years, there were around 600 lemon-lime beverage brands being sold in the US.[1] 7 Up was able to survive and become the market leader in the category by being one of the first to be nationally distributed as well as being marketed as more healthy than other soft drinks.[citation needed]
The success of 7 Up led Grigg to rename his company to "The Seven Up Company" in 1936.[1]
Lithium citrate was removed from 7 Up's formula in 1950.
Expanding the brand beyond a niche market, major competitors began to set their sights on it such as The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) with its Sprite brand introduced in 1961. Sprite would not challenge 7 Up's position seriously until the 1980s when Coke forced its major bottlers, then distributing 7 Up, to drop the beverage in deference to Sprite. 7 Up challenged Coke's actions in court as "anti-competitive", a challenge they eventually lost.[4]
[edit] Formula
7 Up has been reformulated several times since its launch in 1929. In 2006, the version of the product sold in the U.S. was re-formulated so that it could be marketed as being "100% Natural". This was achieved by eliminating the preservative calcium disodium EDTA, and replacing sodium citrate with potassium citrate in order to reduce the beverage's sodium content. [5] This re-formulation contains no fruit juice and is still sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The manufacturing process used in the production of HFCS has led some public health and special interest groups to challenge the ad campaign's "natural" claims.[6] In 2007, after the Center for Science in the Public Interest threatened to sue 7 Up, it was announced that 7 Up would stop being marketed as "100% natural". Instead, It is now promoted as having "100% Natural Flavors". The controversy does not extend to other countries, such as the United Kingdom, where high fructose corn syrup is not generally used in foods, including 7 Up.
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