Cresta was a frothy fruit-flavoured drink produced in the United Kingdom by Schweppes from the early 1970s through to the early 1980's. It originally came in four different flavours: strawberry, lemon & lime, pineapple and orange;[1] blackcurrant & Cream Soda were added later. [2]
Advertising campaign[edit]
Cresta is widely remembered for its 1970s advertising campaign led by a cartoon polar bear (also called Cresta) sporting sunglasses whose attempts at looking suavely cool would be overwhelmed by bouts of uncontrolled enthusiasm when drinking Cresta.[3] The bear's widely quoted catch phrase "It's frothy, man!" summed up the difference between Cresta and more traditionally fizzy soft drinks.[4][5] This campaign was created by John Webster of Boase Massimi Pollitt, who also invented the Smash instant potato advertisements featuring robotic aliens and the Honey Monster in Sugar Puffs campaigns.[6][7] Most of the commercials were animated at the Richard Williams Studios for funding on The Thief and the Cobbler.
In popular culture[edit]
- Cresta is mentioned, several times, in the song "The Unfortunate Gwatkin" by the band Half Man Half Biscuit on their 2014 album Urge For Offal.
- During the John Inman version of Teddy Bear's Picnic several bears are mentioned including a big bear waving something around and saying "It's frothy man" according to the singer, a thinly veiled reference to the Cresta bear mascot.
- An over 40 year old bottle of Cresta (notably possessing an odour and taste of "medicine and sewage") was reviewed by YouTuber Ashens.
References[edit]
- ^ "Original Cresta ad listing the four flavours". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28.
- ^ Advertisement at the time of the introduction of the blackcurrant version (YouTube video)
- ^ PapaBear (2020-01-19). "Cresta Polar Bear". Minka's Bear Passion. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
- ^ Sample Cresta Advertisement (YouTube video)
- ^ Sample Cresta Bear Dialogue, 1974; Bear: Do you know what all the bears up at the North Pole drink when they're thirsty? It's the sea man — the Arctic Ocean! Now me, I'm really into this frothy Cresta — like this strawberry flavour. The day they start making the Arctic Ocean in strawberry is the only day this young bear's going to drink it!
- ^ Tungate, Mark (2007). Adland: A Global History of Advertising. Kogan Page. pp. 91–92. ISBN 9780749452179.
- ^ Goldman, Lawrence (7 Mar 2013). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008: John Brighton Webster. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1167–1168. ISBN 9780199671540. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
