7 UP 2009

7 Up History

Created by the Howdy Corporation in St. Louis, MO, 7UP was an optimistic venture from the very start. After great success with the Howdy Orange drink, company founder C.L. Grigg decided to try his luck with lemons and limes. C.L. Grigg spent more than two years testing over 11 different formulas, all in search of a drink that was refreshing enough to prove irresistible to the people of Missouri and the world at large. In 1929, C.L. Grigg’s bubbliest drink was born.

The public quickly developed a taste for Grigg’s caramel colored lemon-lime soda. Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda sold, and sold well. As the drink grew more and more popular, the original name was traded in for something short and sweet. Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda became known as 7UP.

Early advertising featured a winged 7UP logo with copy that read "a glorified drink in bottles only. Seven natural flavors blended into a savory, flavory drink with a real wallop." The drink was so successful by 1936 that Grigg changed the name of The Howdy Corporation to The Seven-Up Company. By the late 1940s, 7UP had become the third best-selling soft drink in the world.

In the decades to follow, 7UP developed iconic branding, setting it apart from industry front-runners. In 1967, 7UP brought the phrase UNCOLA into the national vernacular. The UNCOLA campaign set 7UP apart from its competition and became part of a counter cultural that symbolized being true to yourself and challenging the status quo.

Always at the frontier of taste and pop culture, 7UP was also among the first sodas to introduce sugar-free and caffeine free options. Through the years, advertising for 7UP featured everything from a cartoon mascot named Spot, to the "It’s an Up thing" and "Make 7UP yours" taglines.

Fido Dido is a cartoon character created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose. Rose first developed the character in 1985 on a napkin in a restaurant. Fido Dido was licensed to Pepsico in the 1980s, but the character did not receive much attention or popularity until the early 1990s on numerous products, particularly stationery. He reappeared in the 2000s and is currently used on cans and advertising for 7 Up in Argentina, Chile, Greece, Colombia, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,The Netherlands and Israel.
Fido Dido has been licensed to Pepsi Co. for their 7 Up and Slice brands (although 7 Up originated in the United States, it is not a Pepsi Co. brand there).
Fido Dido also appeared in Saturday morning bumpers for CBS from 1990 to 1993.
In 1993, a Fido Dido video game was created for the Sega Mega Drive, but was soon forgotten due to its generic platform design.