Commentary
The Mystery of Aerosol Sprite
Recently, I had an inquiry from our Technical Editor Montfort Johnson—an
overseas colleague of his wanted to learn more information about some images of
Sprite soda in an aerosol package that he had seen online.
The thought of another aerosol soda on the market is always exciting, but is not a new
concept by any means. You may remember that in 1985, Pepsi created an aerosol soda
beverage for astronauts to enjoy aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. However, Mission
Commander Gordon Fullerton told the L.A. Times that the experience of drinking spray
Pepsi wasn’t a pleasant one. The drinks, flown as an engineering evaluation of two designs
of space beverage cans, were warm because of a lack of refrigeration on the shuttle,
and full of fizz and froth, according to the Commander.
“It’s hard to say if they would be enjoyable if they were cold,” Fullerton said at the
time, adding that there were no ill effects from drinking carbonated beverages in weightlessness,
“but I can’t extrapolate to any great desire to have them.”
Fast-forward to 2011, when UK soft drink marketer Britvic launched Turbo Tango,
a “soft drink meets squirty cream” that featured “nitro-fuelled” aerosol technology to
deliver a foamy blast of orange “for a completely new drinking experience.” Turbo Tango
came in a plastic aerosol format and was marketed to older teenagers. Alas, that particular
carbonated soft drink is no longer on the market.
So what about this Sprite aerosol? The first thing that struck me in the photos was the
beautiful artwork on the cans, which reflected aerosol street art. The second thing was
that the cans themselves looked like spray paint. The image of a young person spraying
this industrial-looking product into her mouth looked a bit odd to me, not quite right.
It seemed like a person younger than me (and probably younger than you) with little
or no practical knowledge of the aerosol industry would be more likely to link soft
drinks with spray paint and street art as a cool concept. I surmised that these pressurized
citrus sodas were most likely a student project in either packaging or marketing, as if the
professor asked students to design and market a product not currently on the market.
Quick research showed that the images (and a video!) were residing on Behance, an
online platform owned by Adobe to showcase and discover creative work. The creators
were Plan 9 Media, a production company from Colombia, who launched the project in
April of this year. A large team worked on it, and the production quality is very high.
I’m not sure what the purpose of the project was, if it was an assignment or just art for
art’s sake, but it is worth a look. Check out the complete set of photos and video at www.
behance.net/gallery/60951987/SPRAY-SPRITE.
Whatever the purpose, it’s a positive spin on a favorite drink and a favorite packaging
format. And speaking of spin, there is a clichéd image on the Behance site of (spoiler
alert!) Sprite sprays revolving on a turntable. Whenever you see party items—such as soda
or pizza— spinning on a turntable, you know it’s a good time.
6 Spray October 2019
Spray Technology & Marketing
Cynthia Hundley
Publisher
chundley@spraytm.com
Ava Caridad
Editorial Director
acaridad@spraytm.com
Veronica MacDonald Ditko
Assistant Editor
assteditor@spraytm.com
Montfort A. Johnsen
Technical Editor
montyjohnsen@att.net
Susan Carver
Vice President, Administration
scarver@spraytm.com
Doug Bacile
National Sales Manager
dbacile@spraytm.com
Donald Farrell
Production
production@spraytm.com
Miguel Bravo
Graphic Artist
Reader Service
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Circulation
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Volume 29, No. 10, October, 2019
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