Cynical New Retro Soda + 'Friends' Forever
Hello WNVMers!
This week, Cheryl is cracking open a nice cold can of pop. (We speak Midwestern here, OK?!) Rad Soda is a new player that is trying to evoke the spirit of the ‘80s in its aesthetics without all the aspartame and red dye. Is the whole ‘80s branding thing getting played out and pandering and cynical? Possibly, but it was still a great opportunity to hunt down a lot of fun vintage soda ads and logos and share them here. *fizzy pouring sound* Enjoy!
Then, You Oughta consider bidding on a keepsake memory from your young adult formative years (i.e. the upcoming “Friends” 30th anniversary online auction), and Know about the now-scrapped Jane’s Addiction tour that got messier than a Real Housewives reunion.
I’ve Got My Spine, I’ve Got My Orange Crush
On retro and ‘retro’ soda
By Cheryl
When I was a kid, my parents really didn’t allow us to drink soda regularly. Cavities! But for parties and picnics, my mom would go to Jewel, the local grocery store chain in Chicago, and buy some of the store brand sodas like orange, black cherry, and — the absolute apex of sugary carbonated water — cream soda. I can still conjure up the taste of them all.
So when an ad for Rad Soda came across my nostalgia-trained Instagram story feed, I clicked immediately. The logo and imagery looked vaguely ‘80s, and it promised a healthier “classic orange” soda, along with cola, fruit punch, and ginger citrus flavors. On its website, the copy reads: “Our classic flavors are more than just drinks — they're a trip down memory lane that'll bring a smile to your face.”
Rad seems to be channeling mostly an ‘80s West Coast beach vibe, though it’s a mixed bag on its Instagram page. But it definitely wants the consumer to think retro, as evidenced by a picture of a flat lay that includes a product by those leaders in ‘80s throwback branding, Vacation sunscreen, plus a 35mm camera. It sends samples to influencers in boxes that look like a cassette boombox.
Unlike Vacation, whose founders personally love the era and use images sourced directly from the ‘80s, Rad doesn’t seem to have committed to full immersion in the time period.
“To me, it’s like a toddler’s t-shirt in Kmart with an ‘80’s vibe to catch a parent’s eye, but it’s not iconic and that’s what’s missing,” says Melbourne-based creative director and graphic designer Candy Brophy, of the “wordmark” and can design. Brophy’s specialty is consumer product and food/beverage branding, and she also loves ‘80s design and ads, playing around with the aesthetic on her Instagram. “It’s a very immature, polite take on the ‘80’s and a little meh.”
But Brophy thinks Rad does a good job in its depictions of “the warm, wooden home scenes in the product photography that give us the feels in our white soulless houses, now [that] all our Pizza Huts are sterile and our McDonalds are gray. We yearn for the warmth of wood and the cozy feeling our out-of-style ‘80’s childhood homes and restaurants had.”
As the people behind Rad surely know, retro sells. We have been hearing for years about how Gen Z is fascinated by all things from the ‘80s and ‘90s. A consulting group looking at retro packaging “found positive associations with nostalgia, particularly with” those two decades, according to Packaging Dive. But can Rad become the next — I dunno — Tab?
Making New Things Seem Old
One soda reviewer I found called Rad’s lettering “Atari font.” I can see it. For the flavor names, it uses that Dirty Dancing-adjacent script font that I learned about while reporting on Vacation. The name “Rad” itself is definitely ‘80s-baiting, though one could argue that, unlike its sibling “gnarly,” the word has made it into modern parlance to provide a connection to past and present. With the three letters, the extended line of the “R,” and the short “a” sound, I also see an obvious homage to that other “healthy” soda of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Tab.
Each can also has horizontal faded line gradations that Brophy says are similar to the “vaporwave” style of the era (for similar lines, see: the vintage Slice cans in the image below and this Trapper Keeper), but that they are “also too polite. That era was bold, not subtle, and digital fades like that didn’t exist.”
But maybe retro-esque or vint-ish is enough to hook a thirsty person. Even legit old brands are doing it. Pepsi rebranded its logo earlier this year, putting its name back into its “globe,” similar to the look it had during the ‘80s and ‘90s, which a brand rep said “resonated with people of all generations.” Could that have been an oblique reference to Pepsi’s famous “Choice of a New Generation” slogan used from 1984 to 1988? It debuted in Michael Jackson’s 1984 commercial, set to the tune of “Billie Jean.” (Pepsi let the trademark lapse, and oatmeal company Better Oats snapped it up and used it in the 2010s, per the Daily Meal.)
And Slice, which Pepsi originally launched in 1984 and stopped selling in the aughts, is coming back next year. It briefly returned as a low-calorie iteration that flopped. Now, it’s owned by Suja Life, which intends to relaunch it as a competitor to Poppi and Olipop with “gut benefits,” per Food Dive. The promotional image features a logo that is similar to the original, shown on an old school PC screen.
“In the better-for-you space, retro designs remind consumers of a time when food and beverages had fewer additives and preservatives,” per Packaging Dive. “Simple, retro designs can also symbolize clean ingredients…”
This is hilarious to me, because while it might work for an old-timey look, I’m not sure that really works for the ‘80s, the era of sugary soda. Then there is Tab, the premiere better-for-you soda during the time some of these other drinks are meant to evoke. It was about as far from what a modern beverage drinker would consider healthy as you can possibly get. A 1984 New York Times reporter interviewed Tab fans in 1984 after the company swapped out saccharin for newfangled NutraSweet.
“She wants the metallic bite of saccharin,” said one person, of her family’s Tab addict. And: ''It's too sweet now, I liked the chemical taste better,'' groused another person. Then there is this Reddit thread asking people to describe how Tab tasted to them. The best answers: “regular Pepsi that had been left in a hot car for a couple of days,” “a very dry cough,” and “bus station bathroom in a can.” Tab was discontinued in 2020. There is a petition to bring it back.
Rad or Bad? A Tab for Today
I love getting into the weeds to understand how brands sell stuff to us, so it was with gusto that I dove into the world of beverage marketing. Rad launched in June, but they did not respond to requests for an interview. No matter! The drinks business is not that different from the beauty industry. Packaging that looks good on Instagram and nebulous, provocative messaging like “clean ingredients” are super important in both worlds.
A “group of friends” started Rad, per its “About” page. They apparently all work in the beverage industry. Rad seems to be the brainchild of at least two high-ranking employees at Wildpack, a canning company, and they are working with LA Libations, a beverage incubator. (LA Libations is a big player in the indie beverage space, working with Michelle Obama’s healthier juice brand Plezi, The Rock’s energy drink Zoa, and the super successful NA beer brand Athletic Brewing.) Presumably, all the parties involved looked at a lot of market research to come up with Rad — this doesn’t seem to be the work of a scrappy founder with a lifelong, passionate dream of making healthy grape Crush.
The better-for-you (or BFY) soda space is exploding, thanks to the success of fiber-enhanced Poppi and Olipop. Poppi is being sued for alleged false health claims, so it seems that new sodas are popping up to offer more flavor than seltzers with less sugar than traditional soda, but without the extraneous ingredients and health claims.
That’s where Rad lives. It has 20 calories and 5 grams of sugar per can, sweetened with apple juice and stevia. Rad isn’t yet available on the East Coast where I live, so I tried to order some online, but it was $14.99 for a 12-pack with $16 shipping. (Despite not having cross-country distribution yet, the brand does have merch.) The reviews on the site and YouTube are generally positive. KISS lead singer Gene Simmons tried some at the Malibu Chili Cook-off and seemed to like it?
“It’s an interesting, modern take on the ‘80’s and I can see what they were trying to do,” says Brophy. It ultimately probably doesn’t matter how perfect or authentic the branding is. Gen Z, everyone’s target audience, cares mostly about the general aesthetics of the era, as evidenced by their “Eh, I like it for the vibes” attitude about vintage band tees.
Or, everyone can just be like me and drink the superior BFY retro soda, introduced in 1982: Diet Coke.
We are two Gen X journalists who analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
Jane’s Addiction frontman and Lollapalooza founder Perry Ferrell ruined Cheryl’s and a lot of other fans’ concert experiences over the last week, as he and the original band members toured for the first time in 14 years. After an incoherent and weak performance in NYC (during which many attendees left), Ferrell got into a fight onstage with guitarist Dave Navarro a few nights later in Boston. The band ultimately announced the tour’s cancellation, citing the “mental health difficulties of Perry Ferrell” and “our concern for his health and safety as well as our own.” Then, in the most chaotic move ever, they dropped a new single called “True Love” two days later. We hope everyone is OK, and that the fantastic and underrated alt-rock band Love & Rockets (who was opening for Jane’s), figures out how to get more time on the road. Anyway. Here is a nice homage to the influence of Jane’s Addiction: [Lipps Service Substack]
WNVM patron saint and eventual Instagram follower Jon Bon Jovi was filming a music video on a bridge in Nashville and noticed a woman who appeared to be distressed and was considering jumping. He apparently talked her off and helped her to safety and awaiting police and fire department officials. [TMZ]
In celebration of another milestone anniversary, a “Friends” auction is going down on Monday, September 23 at 10am PST/1pm EST. But don’t worry, it’s online at Julien’s Auctions, so you can leave your whistles at home and avoid the mayhem of Monica (Courteney Cox), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) jaunt to — gasp — Brooklyn to shop sample sale wedding dresses. The “‘Friends’ The One With The 30th Year Anniversary Auction” features Rachel’s gray mohair sweater — complete with the tag from costume designer Debra McGuire’s department — when she teaches little Ben (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) to prank Ross (David Schwimmer), Phoebe’s very aughts-y embroidered and fur-trimmed denim robe coat, and pieces worn by a bb Dakota Fanning, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, and Bruce Willis. Superfans can also snap up decor from Monica and Rachel’s outrageously huge rent-controlled apartment, a bright orange studio-made Central Perk couch and more. [WNVM Inbox]
Leading up to the September 20 premiere of body horror satire The Substance, Demi Moore shares why she signed on for Coralie Fargeat’s dark comedic statement on ageism and sexism, especially in Hollywood, how her fraught relationship with her mother affected her body image, and what she thinks now of her famous 1991 Vanity Fair naked baby bump cover. And, yes, Moore also drops some tea on the rumored St. Elmo’s Fire sequel. [The New York Times]
For much, much less than the $8,000 bid on that Central Perk couch reproduction, you can support us by upgrading your subscription here:
Love this article, you guys! Several comments! 1) A font is everything, and can make or break not only products, but a television show or movie as well - think Stranger Things and Longlegs! 2) Vacation is *the best* what a great marketing campaign, design, and they even had that smoothie at Erewhon, craaazy 3) Jane’s Addiction, my favorite band from high school, is officially over. That tour is done and so is Dave Navarro putting up with Perry’s antics. Dave just recently got over Long Covid (which I have) and your patience runs thin when you’ve had a life-altering illness like that. I’m sad about the band, caught them in 2022 thankfully sans Dave who was sick, but love Dave and know he’s gonna be happier now. I didn’t even talk about soda! Haha. Love reading you both and am always excited to see you in my inbox ❤️
If Rad Soda comes out with a version of OK Soda, I an ON BOARD.