Lilt CCEP Fanta

The dust is still settling on the news Lilt is no more.

It’s been a tough start to the year, marked by a barrage of depressing headlines, which may go some way towards explaining the outburst over the seemingly trivial announcement that it will be rebranded as Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit.

Let’s be honest, Coke doesn’t give its stellar performers the boot: a lot of people had virtually forgotten Lilt existed.

Many saw the funny side of the loss of the nostalgic brand. But there were also some strong reactions. Perhaps I am not alone in considering the move tantamount to a hate crime. Not only did I grow up in a family of Lilt lovers, but I didn’t know the drink contained grapefruit, and it is simply not something I would have bought if the flavour was so prominently displayed on the packaging.

The pitchfork-gathering has reached such a height that a Change.org petition to save the Lilt name has been set up (although granted, it’s yet to generate serious traction). 

This is how the internet reacted to the loss of its beloved and “totally tropical” fizz.

More than one person equated the demise of Lilt to that of our late Sovereign Lady Elizabeth II.

 

This man saw an opportunity to make some money.

 

Plenty suggested a subtext in CCEP’s retirement of the brand that it was no longer politically correct or marketable in today’s society.

While it’s true the old advertising methods for Lilt, featuring a Caribbean cast of Lilt Ladies and the Lilt Man, may not go down well today, neither would the blatantly sexualised advertising of Diet Coke back in the early 2000s, and no one is suggesting we kill that off.

 

Coming off the back of a night of emotions running high at the Superbowl, memes interlinking the two events took off.

 

And there were plenty more sports gags to be had.

 

Very British Problems, the home of only the hottest takes, made this very fair point.

 

This observer was philosophical about the matter.

 

Comments about Fanta’s association with Nazi Germany ran rife.

 

And finally, grim acceptance surfaced as the news stirred up memories of those we’ve lost before. Remember Marathon Bars? Opal Fruits? Jif, anyone?

 

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