It was announced today that Lilt, the drink with the ‘totally tropical taste’, is being discontinued three years before its 50th anniversary. The drink will be rebranded as part of the ‘Fanta family’. A senior representative from Coca Cola, the parent company, has sought to ‘reassure Lilt’s loyal fanbase that absolutely nothing has changed when it comes to the iconic taste of the drink they know and love’.
Well, we aren’t reassured. How can these people expect us loyal Lilt drinkers to trust them when they didn’t even have the decency to give us advanced warning of their plans and time to come to terms with this shock – and, more importantly, stockpile?
Lilt matters. Show me someone who hasn’t had a hangover turned around after drinking a Lilt and I’ll show you a liar. It has a certain magic that is unmatched in any other soft drink – other than, perhaps, Old Jamaican Ginger Beer. Maybe it’s the Caribbean connotations that that help the drinker mentally to whisk himself away to a better place. Fanta, a silly brand and a mediocre drink at best, just doesn’t do that. It doesn’t have the overtones of pineapple and the undertones of grapefruit to trick you into thinking you might be investing something related to Vitamin C.
There has been much focus on the public’s support of the brand and affection from the adverts – the ‘Lilt man’ (as opposed to the milk man) and the iconic Lilt ladies. There’s already a silly squabble over whether Lilt has been canned – forgive the pun – because of the brand’s problematic ‘cultural appropriation’ of the West Indies. That would obviously be very stupid but we have no evidence that Coca Cola ditched Lilt for politically correct reasons.
No this is a disaster for people of good taste, never mind the woke-or-not debates. Unlike Coca-Cola, which became a symbol of globalisation and US hegemony, Lilt has a certain exotic appeal that transports one to somewhere tropical. The drink also commands a strong sense of loyalty among British people of all races – fond as we are of sugar-based imperialism. It was only ever sold in the UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and, you guessed it, the Seychelles, which gave it a certain exclusivity. The best things in life aren’t free. They just aren’t available everywhere.
Coca Cola’s justification for scrapping Lilt smacks of corporate idiocy. The company wants to ensure the product ‘fits in with the Fanta family’. Where is the fun in fitting in? In conformity? Once more we have been shown that in 2023 there is no room any more for diversity: everything must be overpowering and brash.
The anger I feel at this squashing – again, sorry – of Lilt makes me feel I need something cool and refreshing to return me to my usual state of tranquillity. Something calming that transports me to a tropical island, something sweet that doesn’t taste as if it’s about to give you diabetes, something that’ll add a spark to my day without being overpowering. Lilt is what I want. Yet Lilt will soon be what I cannot have. There goes the Lilt man. Life won’t be the same without him
Comments