Manufactured by Grigg’s Howdy Corporation, this soft drink appeared for sale in the fall of 1929 in St. Louis, Missouri, just two weeks before the great stock market crash. Shortly after its launched Grigg change the name to 7UP.
The drink was originally marketed as a hangover cure due to the inclusion of lithium citrate. It was release just a few years before the Wall Street crash of 1929.
It successfully promoted itself as a hangover cure, running a ‘7UP for hangovers’ campaign that pitched the drink as capable the effects, of overdrinking, over-smoking, under-drinking, mental lassitude, overwork, overeating and over worry.
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| 7UP in can |
The lithium citrate was abandoned in the drink in 1950, as lithium was found to cause side effects such as dizziness, nausea and thyroid problems.
In 1933 syrup sales topped 174,000gallons shooting up to 2,074,000 gallons a year by 1936, after Grigg’s post-Prohibition decision to start promotion his soda as a mixer that ‘tames whiskey’ and ‘glorifies gin’.
In the 1940s, 7-UP had successfully moved to the number three sales among soft drinks; only Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola outranked it.
In 1978, the drink was acquired by Philip Morris.
In 1979, a new advertising company campaign for the lemon-lime flavored 7UP shifted its ‘America’s Turning 7UP’ campaign to focus on a rational reason to buy product. Research had shown that consumers perceived colas as containing unhealthy ingredients.
In 1986 Philip Morris sold 7UP’s international operations to Pepsi and two years later offloaded the US business to Dr Pepper. The merger between 7Up and Dr. Pepper Company, creating the world’s third largest soft drink company behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Dr Pepper and 7UP later were purchased by Cadbury Schweppes in 1995.
Business history of 7UP
