I saw an advert in a cinema three or four weeks ago for Vimto – something I vaguely recalled as a 1970s soft drink that sounded like a floor cleaning product and which no one I knew, perhaps no one on earth, ever drank. An advertising agency has obviously felt their brief to resurrect the dead ‘brand’ was too great a mountain to climb, brainstormed a creature called ‘The Vimtoad’ as a CGI advocate for the thing and thought, ‘What the hell…’
I had to google it the next day to make sure (seriously) that I hadn’t simply dreamed it. But no, this advert exists.
I find myself thinking now of other similarly named anthropomorphic absurdities which might be brought into CGI existence to sell other stuff:
* promoting tourism in central Africa with The Congoat
* promoting Dutch art with The Vermeerkat
* promoting other godawful fizzy drinks with The Red Bullfrog
Any others…?
Colin, Colin, Colin.
Far from being a dead brand, Vimto has been alive and well for many years and has probably been more popular in the last 25 years than at any time in its history. I remember it in the Sixties and Seventies as a “pop” you could only get in certain parts of the country, similar to Tizer and Irn Bru. But since the early Nineties, as far as I know, it’s been fairly prominent nationally. I’d say, though, that it’s a Championship drink rather than a Premier League one. I believe it was made – probably still is – by a company called J Nichols. Up north somewhere, I think.
Yep Vimto is a big brand, maybe it’s a bit regional like Irn Bru but you’d be hard pressed to find a supermarket or corner shop that hasn’t got a few crates of it and it’s pretty well known everywhere isn’t it? It certainly hasn’t gone the way of Spangles or Aztec Bars.
Apparently it is also very popular in parts of the middle east particularly as a drink to enjoy during Ramadan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23455612
There is even a new apartment block in Salford, close to the original factory site, called Vimto Gardens.
http://www.vimtogardens.co.uk/#theStory
See also the Vimto sculpture by the railway arches near Manchester Oxford Road Station.
http://northernspirit.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Vimto-Statue-resize.jpg
My mate from Wigan uses the chilled dispenser in the door of his fridge exclusively for Vimto.
Archie has made the valuable point that it’s probably the only brand name of a “foodstuff” which is an anagram of “vomit”.
Apart from the Russian chocolate wafer Timov.
Heard about the dyslexic drunk?
Choked on his own Vimto.
Often sold in Somerset cider houses in an optic so shots could be added to the cider. The original cider and black.
‘VC’, as some called it. Made the really rough stuff vaguely drinkable.
Fuck all up with Vimto, it`s a lovely, refreshing fruit drink.
My family moved from Glasgow to North Wales in 1979. I remember going to the Chinese takeaway to pick up dinner on the first night in our new house, when all our pots and pans were still in boxes. In particular I remember a Vimto advert in their window which read, ‘We respect your British traditions’.
Love Vimto. I used to take it to school hot in a flask, then would always take a few bottles to college after the hols. When we lived in France every visitor had to bring bottle of Vim over too. It was developed by the Temperance movement as a competitor to alchohol! On a cold winter’s day coming in to a mug of hot Vimto is a real treat.
Colin is to Vimto as I am to the Vish.
I think there’s a cultural issue here. I live in Northern Ireland and can honestly say I have never seen a can/bottle/crate of Vimto in my life. I guess it’s one of those things that never got to NI. I could list things here but hopefully the point is made.
But getting back to The Vimtoad and The Congoat and so on…
Fair point, Colin.
How about the Asti Spumanteater?
Before I used to go to NI every year I’d never heard of Yellowman or Fifteens. Fifteens are my favourite thing, when in Rome etc.
I live in Belfast and I can get Vimto easy enough. Sold in Sainsbury’s near me.
Still can’t get Roe from the local chippy though.
To be fair, though, we’ve only had Sainsbury stores for the last 5 years or so. There were NO national grocery store chains (Tesco, ASDA, sainbury) in NI in the 70s or 80s or early 90s.
Funnily enough, that subject came up with some friends last week, who had moved here from Yorkshire in the early 90s. They couldn’t believe back then how much more expensive basic things like a loaf of bread were in NI stores (like Crazy Prices and Stewarts) compared with the big grocery chain stores in GB. There was no local competition and chumps like Jim McGaw could charge whatever they liked and make really crappy TV adverts – because what other choice did we have?
Vimto is/was unusual for being available in two forms – a fizzy pop, and a concentrate you added water to. Or cider. . .
The judge claimed never to have heard of Vimto.
In a series of local ads to sell Swedish flatpack furniture to New Zeelanders you could always create an adorable, stuttering animated parrot known as the “I, Kea”…
Now we’re getting somewhere!
I’ve just thought of The Ballpoint Penguin…
Upmarket Italian coffee promoted via the grumpy but loveable Illybillygoatgruff
Very good!
When i go to the West Midlands, I always look out for what the locals accurately describe as “Blue Pop’. It’s very rare now. Any guidance for reliable sources welcomed.
Do you know Walter White? He’s your man.
Would this blue pop be what was known in my youth as space special? Can only recall it for sale in the chippie.
This is different from panda pops – reliable purveyors of wierd coloured fizzy drinks to corner shops near you?
Cresta used a (badly drawn) Polar Bear. Tag line was: “It’s fizzy, man”
Could also have been “it’s flourescent, man”
Quite what the connection between a Polar Bear and a sickly fizzy drink is I din’t know?
Maybe they were going for the same demographic as buyers of Foxs Glacier Mints
A pedant etc…….
Cresta’s tag line was “It’s frothy man.”
Quoted, gloriously, on Black Grape’s Yeah Yeah Brother.
*starts as if struck by lightning*
God on a Grifter! That’s twenty sodding years old!
Down a rabbit hole of 70s sugary fizzy stuff. As well as Cresta there was Corona and Alpine….coming over all I love the 70s here.
I see a roomful of ‘creatives’ scratching their heads as they wonder how to market a fizzy purple drink with a dated image. At the top of the flip chart is written ‘Vimto ad‘. Hang on a minute …. the creatives start to say.
I think you’re on to something there.
For some reason Panda Cola was a fixture in chip shops in the 80s. An alternative to vinegar, perhaps.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been relaunched as Jifto
Very good.