Cresta (soft drink) explained

Cresta was a frothy fruit-flavoured drink produced in the United Kingdom by Schweppes from the early 1970s through to the early 1990's. It originally came in four different flavours: strawberry, lemon & lime, pineapple and orange;^[1] blackcurrant & Cream Soda were added later. ^[2]

Advertising campaign

Cresta is widely remembered for its 1970s advertising campaign led by a cartoon polar bear (also called Cresta) sporting sunglasses whose attempts at looking suavely cool would be overwhelmed by bouts of uncontrolled enthusiasm when drinking Cresta.^[3] The bear's widely quoted catch phrase "It's frothy, man!" summed up the difference between Cresta and more traditionally fizzy soft drinks.^{[4] [5]} This campaign was created by John Webster of Boase Massimi Pollitt, who also invented the Smash instant potato advertisements featuring robotic aliens and the Honey Monster in Sugar Puffs campaigns.^{[6] [7]} Most of the commercials were animated at the Richard Williams Studios for funding on The Thief and the Cobbler.

In popular culture

• Cresta is mentioned, several times, in the song "The Unfortunate Gwatkin" by the band Half Man Half Biscuit on their 2014 album Urge For Offal.
• During the John Inman version of Teddy Bear's Picnic several bears are mentioned including a big bear waving something around and saying "It's frothy man" according to the singer, a thinly veiled reference to the Cresta bear mascot.
• An over 40 year old bottle of Cresta (notably possessing an odour and taste of "medicine and sewage") was reviewed by YouTuber Ashens.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Original Cresta ad listing the four flavours. https://web.archive.org/web/20110728050739/https://s989.photobucket.com/albums/af13/Knockoutcomic/KNOCK1/?action=view&current=crestaad.jpg. 2011-07-28.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdnUo1q2E90 Advertisement at the time of the introduction of the blackcurrant version (YouTube video)
3. Web site: Cresta Polar Bear. PapaBear. 2020-01-19. Minka's Bear Passion. en-GB. 2020-03-16.
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlcxwwd19Qg&NR=1 Sample Cresta Advertisement (YouTube video)
5. http://www.headington.org.uk/adverts/drinks_soft.htm Sample Cresta Bear Dialogue, 1974; Bear: Do you know what all the bears up at the North Pole drink when they're thirsty? It's the sea man — the Arctic Ocean! Now me, I'm really into this frothy Cresta — like this strawberry flavour. The day they start making the Arctic Ocean in strawberry is the only day this young bear's going to drink it!
6. Book: Tungate, Mark. Adland: A Global History of Advertising. 2007. Kogan Page. 91–92. 9780749452179.
7. Book: Goldman. Lawrence. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008: John Brighton Webster. 7 Mar 2013. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 9780199671540. 1167–1168. 31 October 2014.