Originally published at: Trip Out to this 1970s 7UP Commercial | Boing Boing
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That sure does sound like Elvis the King starting at about 0:16.
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Elvis has left the building.
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And there I was, wasting my time with Absinthe.
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I assume that’s what they want you to think
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(i actually use the product name to recall the atomic weight of lithium)
7 Up was created by Charles Leiper Grigg for The Howdy Corporation in 1920. Grigg came up with the formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929. The product, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda … It contained lithium citrate a mood-stabilizing drug, until 1948. … Its name was later shortened to “7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda” before being further shortened to just “7 Up” by 1936.
A myth exists that the 7 Up name comes from the drink having a pH over 7. That would make it neutral or basic on the scale; however, this is not the case, as the 7 Up pH is close to 3.79, making it acidic … The real origin of the name is unclear, though there are claims that the name comes from the seven main ingredients in the drink while others have claimed that the number was a coded reference to the lithium in the original recipe, which has an atomic mass around 7.
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Coca-Cola’s original recipe contained cocaine; 7-Up’s had a healthy dose of LSD-25, evidently.
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Fun fact: This ad was created by Robert Abel and Associates, who went on to do a lot of the FX in Tron.
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It makes me think of the marching scenes and other optical effects in the German adaptation of We:
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I read that the sfx they were paid to do for Star Trek, The Motion Picture, was deemed to be useless (“Abel was fired after failing to produce even a few seconds of usable footage…”) prompting the producers to ‘eat crow’ and call in Douglas Trumbull and his team. What’s odd is that I was sure that certain light effects (Vger destroying Klingon spaceships, Star Fleet Outpost, etc.) were created by Abel, given their similarity to Abel’s best work for adverts.
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The zoom effects, most notably in the word “Uncola”, were done with a technique called “Luminetics” which Abel developed. From the brief descriptions I know it was a kind of optical printer with a moveable camera controlled by a computer, the light traces being a result of very long exposures while the camera moved. This was still featured as “the future of animation” in 80’s books. Boy, were they wrong.
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Director: “Aaaaand RANDOM HOTDOG!.. Cut! Perfect!”
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I’ve been watching this near constantly since it got posted. When I’m not watching it, the song is in my head on repeat.
Watched five mins of random selections - I’m saving that for later - WOW.
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