Sprite Ads Starred Rappers Back When Hip-Hop Was 'Scary' for Brands

Wander through YouTube to see what TV spots looked like in 1986, and you’ll be in for a lot of … vanilla. This was the year that Chevrolet (the “Heartbeat of America”) showed us cowboys and fields of waving grain. America’s boy next door, Michael J. Fox, bought his Pepsi from a vending machine. Burger King pinned its ambitions on a guy in bug-eyed glasses and flood pants named Herb the Nerd. This sea of safeness—and, not incidentally, whiteness—is why one particular spot from that year made history. Its 30 seconds featured a recording booth and a 27-year-old emcee named Kurtis Blow laying down a verse about Sprite. Thirty-something A.P. Chaney, Sprite’s director of creative, wasn’t around in 1986, but she can explain the opportunity that Sprite executives had spotted. In 1980s advertising, “everybody was doing the same thing,” Chaney said. “And that’s really how Sprite carved out its own lane.” Sprite was the first mainstream brand to line up behind hip-hop, and its long list of endorsers over the years reads like a rap who’s who: Nas, Common, Mos Def and Drake have all sung (well, rhymed) the praises of Coca-Cola’s citrusy sister. Today, when Snoop Dogg stumps for Corona, Cardi B collabs with Reebok, and Lil Nas X has loaned his million-dollar smile to Doritos, Coach, Wrangler, Panera, Taco Bell and Crocs, it’s easy to overlook how radical it was to sign a rapper 37 years ago. In the era of Reagan and the neocons, authorities relished in scapegoating rap as a cause of social unrest. Mainstream brands kept their distance. As Chaney explained, hip-hop was the collective voice of young people “coming together to talk about what was not right in the world—and oftentimes, that’s scary for a brand.” Sprite took a more practical view: To knock 7Up out of the lead spot, it needed young consumers—and rap was increasingly the way to reach them. “The music seems well on its way to crossing over from Black to white teenagers,” said The New York Times in 1986. And, as we know now, cross over it did. Sprite’s strategy has paid off. Today, the brand is the No. 1 lemon-lime soft drink on the planet. Little wonder that the latest ad spot was an all-star salute to hip-hop’s 50th birthday, featuring wordsmiths past and present (Nas, Rakim, GloRilla and Latto) covering The Sugarhill Gang’s seminal hit "Rapper’s Delight." “It was very much reemphasizing that we've been down since day one,” Chaney said of the effort, “and we’re also going to be here for years to come.” What's a lymon? Formulated in 1929 and originally sold as Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, 7Up had the carbonated citrus category pretty much to itself for decades—a hegemony that Coca-Cola was determined to end when it rolled out Sprite in 1961. Fans have debated which soda tastes better ever since, with older consumers recalling that Sprite boasted both lemon and lime tastes in the form of what it called “lymon.” Sprite began to surpass 7Up in the mid-1980s, right around the time its ads with hip-hop stars hit the airwaves. Coincidence? Probably not. Upbeat as Kurtis Blow was, it was clear from the outset that a war of words had begun: “Lemon taste and lime taste, great lymon taste—it’s tough. Without lymon, it’s not happening, so sorry, 7Up!” Hip-Hop-a You Don't Stop Sprite’s commitment to hip-hop wasn’t only a fruitful piece of creative work—it also inspired Sprite’s chief creator herself. In 2015, Sprite launched “Obey Your Verse,” a riff on Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst” slogan, with a limited-edition collection of cans featuring select lines penned by rap royalty. Back then, Chaney was working as a junior creative strategist for a small agency in Connecticut. When she noticed Drake’s lyric, “Started from the bottom,” on a Sprite bottle, she peeled off the label and put it up on her pinboard. Eight years later, Chaney is at the bottom no longer—and the wrapper can still be seen in her office. “It was a full-circle moment for me, having this wrapper and then being where I am today at Sprite,” she said. Coolin' It Sprite's first foray into the world of hip-hop came in April 1986 (1) with "News Rap," the 30-second spot featuring Kurtis Blow. Pleased with the results, Sprite stuck with rappers for the next three decades. Earlier this year, the brand celebrated hip-hop's 50th birthday with a class reunion including Nas (2), who is No. 3 on Billboard’s 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list for 2023.

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Sprite Ads Starred Rappers Back When Hip-Hop Was 'Scary' for Brands

How a who's who of music icons helped Coca-Cola's 'lymon' soda diss 7Up

Robert Klara

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