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Snapple

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Snapple
TypeIced tea, juice drink, lemonade, water
ManufacturerDr Pepper Snapple Group
Country of origin United States
Introduced1972
Related productsNestea, Lipton Iced Tea
Websitewww.snapple.com Edit this on Wikidata

Snapple is a brand of tea and juice drinks which is owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group and based in Plano, Texas.

History

File:RackofFlavors.png
Snapple Flavors

Snapple was founded by Hyman Golden, Arnold Greenberg and Leonard Marsh in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island in 1972. The word "Snapple" was introduced in the early 1980s and is derived from a carbonated apple juice.[1] "In 1980, the company introduced a line of all-natural juices with the Snapple name, which came from one of its first products, a carbonated apple juice that had a "snappy apple taste." They first started with pure fruit drinks, and would not manufacture their first tea, lemon tea, until 1987.[2] Currently, there are four different types of Snapple: Tea (diet and regular), juice drinks, lemonade, and bottled water.

File:Peach Flavor.JPG
New Snapple

Snapple's brand slogan is "Made from the best stuff on Earth."

Snapple was known for a popular series of TV advertisements in the early 1990s featuring Wendy Kaufman (the "Snapple lady") answering letters from Snapple fans.

The Quaker Oats Company bought Snapple for $1.7 billion in 1994 and quit using Wendy. The company ran into problems and sold it to Triarc in 1997 for $300 million.[3] Triarc sold it to Cadbury Schweppes for $1.45 billion in September 2000.[4] It was spun off in May 2008 to its current owners.

File:Snapple Bottles.jpg
Old Snapple Bottles and logo was used from 2000-2008

Starting in May 2009, Snapple was made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. However, in certain areas, the older formula is still sold in stores, but this is becoming increasingly rare.[5]

Lawsuit

In 2009, a consumer lawsuit was brought against Snapple. The suit alleges that the manufacturer's marketing use of the words "all natural" is fraudulent because the drink is made with corn syrup. The complaint also raises the issue of Snapple drink names including fruits when the products do not contain those fruits.[6]

Snapple and education

In October 2003, Snapple began its sponsorship of the New York City school system,[citation needed] as part of the deal to make Snapple New York's official beverage.[7] The company promised an $8 million dollar per year profit for city schools if it were allowed to sell its drinks, including juice and bottled water, in school vending machines.[7] Snapple was able to acquire the contract in part because New York City officials did not want to encourage the consumption of sodas, which have been linked to childhood obesity, diabetes and are generally considered unhealthy. The Snapple juice drinks, specifically created to meet rules banning soda and other sugary snacks from city schools, are marketed under the "Snapple 100% Juiced!" label.[7] The flavors available under this brand include Green Apple, Fruit Punch, Melon Berry, Grape, Orange Mango, and Strawberry Lime.[7] Although the juice drinks are fortified with vitamins and minerals, they still contain more sugar (41 grams) than a 12-ounce container of Coca Cola (39 grams).[7] Dr. Michael F. Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called the drinks "little better than vitamin-fortified sugar water."[7] In addition, the concentrates used in the drinks, apple, grape and pear, are the least expensive and nutritious. Dr. Toni Liquori, associate professor at the Columbia Teachers College, questioned the sale of bottled water in schools, saying "If anything, we should have cold water in our schools."[7]

The deal also gave Snapple exclusive rights to sell its tea and juice-based drinks in vending machines on all New York City properties starting in January 2004. Snapple paid the City $106 million for the rights and agreed to spend $60 million more to marketing and promotion over the length of the five-year contract[citation needed].

"Real Facts"

Snapple is well-known for printing interesting numbered "facts" on the inside of their bottle caps. A list of these "Real Facts" is available on the company website.[8]

Incorrect facts

Several of the facts on Snapple caps have been found to be outdated, incorrect or exaggerated. Discredited "Real Facts" include:

  • #31 "The average human will eat an average of eight spiders a year while asleep." This "statistic" was disseminated in 1993 as an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the internet, as uncovered by Snopes.[9]
  • #36 "A duck's quack does not echo." Tested by Snopes and Mythbusters. Both tests concluded that a duck's quack does echo but is hard to distinguish.[10]
  • #69 "Caller ID is illegal in California." There is no law against Caller ID in the state, though there were lengthy debates about illegalizing it in the early 1990s.[11]
  • #77 "No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times." This myth was proven wrong by Britney Gallivan in 2002 when she managed 12 folds. In 2005, drawing on Gallivan's accomplishment, the Discovery Channel show MythBusters, folded a piece of paper 11 times. The piece of paper used in MythBusters was an oversized piece of paper and thinner than a standard 8.5"x11" piece of paper.[12]
  • #89 "The average American walks 18,000 steps a day." There are many 10,000 steps a day health programs which consider 10,000 a stretch goal. Such programs state that a "sedentary person" only walks 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.[13]
  • #114 "The oldest known animal was a tortoise, which lived to be 152 years old." A tortoise named Harriet once lived to be 175 years old.[14]
  • #116 "The largest fish is the whale shark - it can be over 50 feet long and weigh 2 tons." Full-grown whale sharks do not weigh 2 tons (4,000 lbs or 1,820 kg), but are much heavier, weighing up to 16 tons (32,000 lbs or 14,550 kg).[15]
  • #146 "The smallest county in America is New York County, better known as Manhattan." -- Although, Manhattan has a smaller land area, it's total area (including water area) is larger than Arlington County, Virginia which in total area (as it has no water area) is the smallest county in America.
  • #162 "The temperature of the sun can reach up to 15 million degrees Fahrenheit." In fact, the core of the sun reaches 15 million degrees Celsius, about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.[16]
  • #794 "Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States, and Zabriskien [sic] Point, the lowest point in the United States, are less than eighty miles apart." It is true that Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, but Badwater in Death Valley, not Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, is the lowest point in the United States.[17]
  • #889 "The original Cinderella was Egyptian and wore fur slippers." It is true that Rhodopis is considered the oldest telling of the Cinderella story, but her slippers are consistently described as rose-gold. Some claim that Charles Perrault's classic French telling featured fur slippers, and that vair (fur) was mistranslated as verre (glass), but this is believed to be an urban legend.[18]

Rumors and myths

Like many popular brands, Snapple has had urban myths and false rumors occasionally plague its brand. In 1992, rumors began to spread that Snapple was a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan and Operation Rescue. The reasoning for this was the portrayal of a ship from the Boston Tea Party,[19] which was mistakenly believed to be a slave ship. The ensuing bad publicity caused the company to redesign their iced tea labels. The new design featured a smiling sun and, depending on the flavor, a lemon wedge/peach slice/several raspberries and a lemon tree/peach tree/raspberry bush.[20] In early 2009 the label design would receive another makeover, this time with a somewhat more simplified design.[21]

Snapple also fell victim to the old rumor that the small "K" was either a representation of the Klan, or of an imagined "Jewish Tax" (augmented by the fact that all three founders were Jewish). The "K" on the products actually meant that they were certified kosher.


Snapple initially tried to quell these rumors quietly, but ultimately had to launch a media campaign to squash them, pointing out it would be bad for business to support controversial issues in such a way as the rumors implied. Through a media campaign with the NAACP, Snapple successfully fought back these rumors, although occasionally they are still brought up as fact.[22]

Alt text
Snapple "Real Fact" #735

Collecting Snapple caps

Snapple Top Collection Services is a database, "Global Community Collection", that collects photos of Snapple "Real Facts" caps from its visitors to display as a reference to all Snapple fans.

The basis of the site is to bring together a community of Snapple fans and simultaneously show the power of the internet. In fact, Dani links the personal website links to the caps they submit in appreciation of their submission. The goal is to collect all of the "Real Facts" ever printed.[23]

The NBC sitcom Seinfeld featured Snapple several times during the 9 season run of the show. Perhaps the most famous example is in the Season 4 Episode 'The Visa'. The storyline of the episode revolves around the deportation of the character Babu Bhatt, played by Brian George. When Babu is unfortunately deported, his cousin arrives at Jerry Seinfeld's apartment. Elaine Benes offers him a Snapple, to which he replies 'No, too fruity'. This was a directorial comment on the criticism which Seinfeld received for product placement.

NBC's 30 Rock included Snapple in the episode "Jack-Tor" dedicated to product placement, where television writer Liz Lemon argued against including GE’s products in the show.

File:I only date guys who drink snapple.png
I only date guys who drink Snapple.

Liz: “We’re not compromising the integrity of the show to sell…”
Pete: “Wow, this is diet Snapple?”
Liz: “I know, it tastes just like regular Snapple, doesn’t it?”
Frank: “You should try plumagranite, it’s amazing.”
Cerie: “I only date guys who drink Snapple.”
Jack: “Look, we all love Snapple. Lord knows I do.”

The show even featured someone dressed in a Snapple suit asking where HR was located. Furthermore, when that episode aired, an actual commercial for Snapple was shown during the break after that scene aired.

Eminem's song "Any Man" featured Snapple in the lyrics... "...Eminem starts with E, better check the spelling with a capital, somebody grab me a Snapple I got an aspirin capsule trapped in my adam's apple..."

In May 2010, a new commercial came out with Pandas talking as humans speaking about Snapple tea. There is a controversy about racism and a possible rip-off of another commercial about Chinese food with talking pandas.[24]

On May 16,2010 on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice (U.S. season 9) season finale Bret Michaels and Holly Robinson Peete have to create a new flavor for Snapple, 30-second commercial, and 3-page advertorial.

In December 2010 USA's show Psych featured Snapple corrugated signs for their peach and diet peach teas in the closing scene in a grocery store.

Snapple Theater Center

In 2007, Snapple opened the Snapple Theater Center on 50th street and Broadway in the heart of New York City's theater district. It has two theaters, one of which is a traditional theater, the other a thrust stage which can house plays. The center also includes a 40x50 ft rehearsal space which is available for rent. The theaters are considered Off-Broadway because of their low seating capacities.

Discontinued brands

Whipper Snapple
Snapple Sodas

Discontinued flavors

Iced Tea
Orange Ice Tea, Cactus Ice Tea, Compassion Berry
Elements
Earth, Rain, Sun
Soda
Cherry Lime Ricky, Cream Soda, Tru Root Beer
Juice
Bali Blast, Apple Pie (seasonal)
Lemonade
Dream-A-Drink
Ralph's Cantaloupe Cocktail

See also

References

  1. ^ O'Connor, Anahad. "Hyman Golden, Co-Founder of Snapple, Dies at 85", The New York Times, September 20, 2008. Accessed September 20, 2008.
  2. ^ snapple.com "About Snapple" Accessed March 10, 2009
  3. ^ "www.morevalue.com/glossary/restrict/Divestiture-Snapple.html".
  4. ^ "www.fool.com/news/breakfast/2000/breakfast000918.htm".
  5. ^ Lee, Jennifer 8 (2009-02-19). "Reading the Tea Leaves, Snapple Refreshes Itself". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-21.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "Snapple Drinks Are Not All Natural or Fruity, Consumer Suit Says". Retrieved 2009-07-24. [dead link‍]
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Burros, Marian (2003-09-17). "The Snapple Deal: How Sweet It Is". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
  8. ^ http://www.snapple.com/real-facts/
  9. ^ "snopes.com: Spiders Swallowed Per Year".
  10. ^ Amos, Jonathan (2003-09-08). "Sound science is quackers". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  11. ^ "PUC to mull telephone CLASS proposals. - Free Online Library".
  12. ^ "MythBusters: Underwater Car Episode Trivia - TV.com".
  13. ^ "TheWalkingSite.com".
  14. ^ "Harriet the turtle dead at age 175". CBC News. 2006-06-23.
  15. ^ "Biggest Fish... Whale Shark".
  16. ^ Calvin J. Hamilton. "Sun". Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  17. ^ http://www.americansouthwest.net/california/death_valley/badwater.html
  18. ^ http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/slippers.asp
  19. ^ 'http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A3YKZcnkf8c/ScPaV0HHZjI/AAAAAAAAAbA/9b-YVI0lx1I/s1600-h/Picture+63.png' An old bottle of Snapple Iced Tea with the Boston Tea Party theme label
  20. ^ 'http://img4.realsimple.com/images/food-recipes/tools-products/0412/snapple-tea_300.jpg' The mid-1990s label redesign
  21. ^ 'http://popsop.ru/wp-content/uploads/dr-pepper-snapple-g.jpg' Snapple Lemon Iced Tea
  22. ^ "http://www.snopes.com/rumors/snapple.htm". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  23. ^ Snapple Top Collection Services: About
  24. ^ Snapple Top Collection Services: What's with the buzz on Snapple Pandas?
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