Schweppes

History

In the late eighteenth century, Johann Jacob Schweppe developed a process to manufacture carbonated mineral water based on the discoveries of Joseph Priestley. Schweppe founded the Schweppes Company in Geneva in 1783 to sell carbonated water. In 1792, he moved to London to develop the business there. In 1843, Schweppes commercialised Malvern Water at the Holywell Spring in the Malvern Hills, which was to become a favourite of the British Royal Family until parent company Coca Cola closed the historic plant in 2010 to local outcry.

In 1969, the Schweppes Company merged with Cadbury to become Cadbury Schweppes. After acquiring many other brands in the ensuing years, the company was split in 2008, with its US beverage unit becoming the Dr Pepper Snapple Group and separated from its global confectionery business (now part of Mondelez International). The Dr Pepper Snapple Group is the current owner of the Schweppes trademark.

Mainstay Schweppes products include ginger ale (1870), bitter lemon (1957), and tonic water (the oldest soft drink in the world – 1771).

Marketing

During the 1920s and 1930s the artist William Barribal created a range of posters for Schweppes. In 1945 the advertising agency S.T.Garland Advertising Service Ltd., London coined the word 'Schweppervescence' which was first used the following year. Thereafter it was used extensively in advertisements produced by Garlands who sold copyright of this word to the Schweppes Company for £150 five years later when they relinquished the account.

An ad campaign in the 1950s and 1960s featured a real-life veteran British naval officer named Commander Whitehead, who described the product's bubbly flavour (effervescence) as Evanescence.

Another campaign made use of onomatopoeia in their commercials: "Schhh… You know who." after the sound of the gas escaping as one opens the bottle.