Type Soft drink Flavour Lemon Introduced 1973 | Colour Yellow Manufacturer Schweppes Australia Country of origin Australia | |
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Variants Solo Original
Solo Sub
Solo Strong
Solo Lemon & Lime
Solo Low Carb
Solo Guarana
Solo Brew | ||
Solo is an Australian lemon-flavoured soft drink manufactured by Schweppes Australia. Launched in 1973 by Tarax drinks, it is a ready to drink version of traditional 'pub squash'. It is the market leader of lemon soft drinks in Australia and grew by over 30% in 2007.
Contents
Solo contains preservatives 211 and 223 added sulphites, and should be avoided by people with sulphite sensitivity.
There are 6 variants of Solo: Original Lemon, Lemon & Lime, Solo Sub (no added sugar), Solo Guarana, Solo Low carb and Solo Strong, which contains guarana and caffeine.
Marketing
The original Solo can was designed for DDB Needham Melbourne (Creative Director - Noel Schoelbridge) by Les Mason Design (Simon Josephson Designer and Bill Quan Production).
Positioned as a highly masculine drink, Solo's presents an overtly male image in it aggressive television commercials. Until the early 1990s, the Solo man character and slogans "The thirst crusher" and "Low on fizz, so you can slam it down fast" was used in advertising. The commercials often featured scenes of men taking part in activities such as athletics or extreme sports. Since becoming a sponsor of the Football Federation of Australia, the slogan "Game On" has been used.
In 2012, the Solo man was revived by the advertising agency BMF as part of a new Solo advertising campaign.
Overseas markets
Cadbury Schweppes sold a similar citrus drink named Rondo in the United States market during the late 1970s and 80s. Like Solo, Rondo's marketing was positioned as a similarly masculine drink. Its aggressive commercials were parodied in the 2006 film Idiocracy as "Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator".
Using the Australian Solo as an inspiration, Cadbury Schweppes has also sold an energy drink in the U.S. called Coolah Energy. It used the tagline "Energy from Down Under". It listed boronia as an ingredient, a citrus plant in Australia known more worldwide for use in floral arrangements than its fruit. Coolah Energy has since been discontinued.