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French soda Orangina marks 75 years of ad fizz

Orangina, a Mediterranean soft drink story from post-war France and now a global brand with decades of powerful advertising, is marking 75 years of fizz.

French soda Orangina marks 75 years of ad fizz
Cyclone Bill

The brand, and its orange-shaped bottle, has built up a global presence since the post-World War II consumer boom in France in the 1950s and 1960s.

For French consumers from that period it is redolent of cliches of the good times after wartime hardships: summer holidays as often portrayed in the rising film industry.

It is also a formidable story of business success.

The drink was born on the southern banks of the Mediterranean, in pre-independence Algeria.

Leon Beton created “the soda from Naranjina”, in 1936 based on a recipe developed by a pharmacist in Valencia, Spain, mixing orange concentrate, sugar, and essential oils.

The concoction was intended as medicinal drink, much like its American cousin Coca-Cola a half a century before.

But World War II stopped the project in its tracks.

When peace returned, Beton’s son Jean Claude took over the business.

His company, Noranjina North Africa, produced the concentrate and advertising and partners were left to handle the rest.

Immediately, Beton looked to leisure and sun for inspiration.

The bottle — to the frustration of bottlers —  was round with the rough texture of an orange. The young entrepreneur, described alternatively as authoritarian and charming, insisted on his vision.

Poster advertising featured bright orange slices as beach umbrellas against skies of deep pure blue.

The French population in Algeria, before the country gained independence, soon took to the flavour, the sparkle and the message.

When the war of independence took hold, the brand crossed the Mediterranean and rode the wave of France’s booming youth culture.

Beton hired students to consume the drink conspicuously at cafe tables, and soldiers coming home from war provided a marketing push too.

In 1957, 50 million bottles were sold and in 1975, ten times more.

Advertising was the key, with TV advertising replacing the posters of the 1950s.

Innovative and irreverent promotion kept the brand popular with a new generation of young people, as France entered a new period of change after 1968.

The success was huge and over the years, the family business became a mouth-watering corporate target.

In 1985, Beton sold Orangina to drinks giant Pernod Ricard, and retired to the wine business in France’s Bordeaux region where he still works today.

Over the years, Orangina changed hands frequently and belongs today to Japanese conglomerate Suntory.

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FOOD AND DRINK

Cheese in numbers: France’s obsession with fromage

From cheese types to the amount eaten per year, via cheese favourites - here's a look at how France really feels about fromage.

Cheese in numbers: France’s obsession with fromage

March 27th is the Journée nationale du fromage in France – so here are a few facts about the delicious dairy delicacy.

246

Charles de Gaulle famously once asked of governing France: “How can anyone govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?”.

His numbers were wrong. Producers in France make closer to 1,000 varieties of cheese – and some have estimated that figure could be pushed up as high as 1,600.

8

The number of cheese ‘families’ in France. A good cheeseboard in France is generally considered to consist of at least three ‘families’ – a soft cheese, a hard cheese and either a blue or a goat’s cheese. Remember, too, an odd number of fromages on a platter is better than an even number, according from cheese etiquettists

READ ALSO France Facts: There are eight cheese families in France

2.5

About how long – in years – it would take you to try every cheese made in France, if you tried a new variety every day. Life goals. 

95

The percentage of people in France who say they eat cheese at least once a week, spending seven percent of their weekly food bill on it.

READ ALSO Best Briehaviour: Your guide to French cheese etiquette

40

Two-fifths of French people say they eat cheese every day

57

The amount of cheese produced, in kilogrammes, in France every second, according to this website, which has a counter to show you how fast that really is. It’s estimated that 1.8 million tonnes of cheese are produced in France every year.

27

The French consume, on average, a whopping 27 kilogrammes of cheese per person per year.

READ ALSO Fonduegate: Why customer service is different in France

3

The three most popular cheeses in France, based on sales, are Emmental, Camembert, and Raclette – followed by mozzarella, goat’s cheese, Comté and Coulommiers.

63

Some 63 cheeses have been awarded the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée status, which means they can only be produced in a certain region.

1

France has – or at least soon will have – one dedicated cheese museum. 

READ ALSO Three things to know about the new Paris cheese museum

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