Sprite is a colorless, lemon and lime-flavored soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company.
It is the world’s leading lemon-lime soda and the third best-selling soft drink worldwide and is sold in over 190 countries.
Sprite is also The Coca-Cola Company’s No. 2 brand, behind only Coke.
Before Sprite was released to the public, extreme amounts of attention were paid to aspects such as the color of the product’s branding, and the design of the look for the product. Designers and engineers for Coca-Cola Company poured through massive amounts of research, dozens of designs were considered for the Sprite bottle, and great care was taken when considering the logo and labeling of Sprite.
Green was chosen as the primary color for the brand, and it heavily marketed and connected to Sprite as a product. Green was chosen to represent Sprite due to its refreshing and noticeable color, and that not only
does it stand out as an easy to see cool color, but it is also fairly non-aggressive due to it being the most common natural color in nature.
Like Coca-Cola’s legendary bottle shape, Sprite has consistently featured its own particular bottle detail: dimples. The dimpled bottle has been around for most of Sprite’s history. The dimples represent the bubbles in the carbonated drink.
Sprite did well with its branding, and the product has achieved a strong connection to the idea of being refreshing, as well as being remembered for the standout green color of its branding.
Sprite was first developed in West Germany in 1959 as Fanta Klare Zitrone – “Clear Lemon Fanta”, and was introduced in the United States under the current brand name Sprite in 1961 as a competitor to 7 Up.
In 1967, Sprite was available to about 85 percent of the U.S. population and was sold in at least 39 countries.
Sprite Zero Sugar is a sugar-free variant of Sprite. It originally began production as “Sugar Free Sprite” in 1974, and was renamed to “Diet Sprite” in 1983. In other countries, it was known as “Sprite Light”.
In the 1980s, Coca-Cola pressured its bottlers that also distributed 7UP to up the distribution of Sprite instead. Sprite finally became the market-leader of the lemon-lime sodas in 1989 and has remained so ever since.
After the success of the products, the company released more variants of it and made the brand more interesting and unique in the eyes of the consumers.
Today, Sprite comes in multiple flavours, including cranberry, cherry, grape, orange, and vanilla.
Sprite advertising often makes use of the portmanteau word lymon, a combination of the words “lemon” and “lime”. Additionally, the bottle of the beverage has several concave spots, an attempt to emulate the bubbles caused by the soda’s carbonation.
By the 1980s, Sprite had developed a large following among teenagers. In response, Sprite began to cater to this demographic in their advertisements in 1987.
Since the late 1980s, the Sprite brand has intermingled heavily with hip-hop culture.
Sprite also advertises heavily with the NBA.
In 1993, Marketing agency Lowe and Partners created a new and slogan, “Control your thirst” upon commission from The Coca-Cola Company.
In 1998, one commercial poked fun at products that featured cartoon mascots in the style of a horror film. In it, the mascot for a fictitious orange juice drink called “Sun Fizz” comes to life, terrifying the kids and mother, and starts to chase them.
In 2000, Sprite commissioned graffiti artist Temper to design limited edition art, which appeared on 100 million cans across Europe.
A Sprite energy drink variant originally launched in the United Kingdom in 2005. Ingredients include glucose, caffeine from green coffee beans, and guarana. It was also released in various other countries but was discontinued in the UK in 2007 due to poor sales, and that Coca-Cola wanted to focus more on Relentless.
In 2015, Sprite launched limited edition cans which featured inspirational lyrics from rap heavyweights such as Drake, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G. and Rakim. The artists who were used were picked “based on their reputation for being true to themselves through their music and advancing the culture,”
Sprite has had several slogans to help promote the drink. One of the most well known slogans for Sprite is “Obey Your Thirst”.
Sprite in European countries such as France, Ireland, UK & the Netherlands all have 30% less sugar, compared to the US.
Sprite in the US has 38 grams of sugar per can.