Best Ads Of The Last 50 Years: Tango Orange Man
The wonderful 1992 UK spot was quickly pulled because people are wusses.
Who’s the best ad mascot of all time? Tony The Tiger? The Jolly Green Giant? Kool-Aid Man? Mr. Clean? The Aflac Duck? The Charmin Shit Bears? Creepy Mr. Tayto?
All wrong. Tango’s Orange Man is the clear winner. The man (played by Peter Geeves) perfectly branded the experience of drinking tangy Tango Orange soda with a two-handed face-SLAP.
The commercial launched the very successful 1990s “You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d” campaign. However, it was soon pulled because playground kids began copying the Orange Man’s SLAP on each other (Wikipedia).
Try to imagine the backlash here in the US if a brand tried airing a similar execution.
Ad agency: HHCL (Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury and Partners), London. Thanks again to Neil Hopkins for the memory joggle.
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