In addition to being illuminated by Geoffrey Holder’s performances, the 7-Up campaign was a rare great example of a true “positioning” campaign:
7-Up was selling much less than the leading cola brands, Coke and Pepsi.
Why? Because more people wanted to drink Coke and Pepsi.
They took a hitherto irrelevant product detail and used it to differentiate 7-Up from the market leaders in a positive way:
Colas have caffeine. 7-Up doesn’t have caffeine.
7-Up declared itself the “uncola” and that as far as caffeine was concerned: “Never had it. Never will.”
The implication was that 7-Up never would stoop to adding wicked, harmful caffeine to its recipe.
For the first time, when ordering a soft drink some people starting thinking, “Hmmm. Do I really want that caffeine right now?”
Here’s an article that discusses the positioning pros & cons of radio stations that boast “commercial free music.”
