Tizer

Tizer

Type	Carbonated soft drink
Manufacturer	A.G. Barr plc (since 1972)
Origin	United Kingdom
Introduced	1924
Colour	Red

Tizer is an orange-coloured, citrus-flavoured carbonated soft drink bottled and sold in the UK. It was launched in 1924 by Fred and Tom Pickup of Birtle, Bury^[1] when it was known as "Pickup's Appetizer", later abbreviated to Tizer.

Thomas Pickup was born on 21 July 1884 in Ashworth, Lancashire, while his brother Fred was born in 1879 in Heap, Birtle, Lancashire to parents Edmund Pickup and Eliza Saxon.^[2] Edmund's brother, Abraham, was by 1901 in partnership with Thomas Fentiman as Fentiman & Pickup, botanical brewers based in Middlesbrough.^[2] The partnership dissolved in 1903, when Fentiman retired, with Abraham continuing the business until his death in 1906, which at this time his widow Harriet continued the business.^[2] By 1907, Thomas and Fred, along with their sister and mother had setup Pickup & Co, as botanical brewers in Bristol, and by 1910 had opened a branch in Pontypridd.^[2] A year later Fred had moved to Leeds, setting up F Pickup, but in 1919, Fred, Hannah and Eliza had left Pickup & Co leaving Thomas to run the company alone.^[2]

The brothers expanded into Manchester, and in 1924 created a new soft drink, that they called Pickups Appetizer, which Fred use to deliver in the streets of the city in stone bottles.^[3] In 1931, a new company, Radiant Table Waters, were formed by the Pickups in Bristol to expand the business with a home delivery service, while in 1933 Tizer Co. Ltd was set up to expand the business into London.^[2] In 1936, Tizer Ltd was incorporated as a public company to take over the operations of F. Pickup, Pickup & Co, Tizer Co. Ltd and Radiant Table Waters.^[2]

In 1956, Pickup announced that the company had made a profit of £270,209 in 1955 and that it had purchased the company, Our Boys Mineral Water based in South Wales.^[4] However, a year later profits had fallen to £68,818 after sales were affected by bad weather that summer.^[5] The company introduced a new drink, Jusoda, which with continued improved sales in Tizer, had seen the company's profits grow to £254,196 in 1957.^[6] Thomas Pickup died in 1960.^[2]

After the death of the Pickup brothers it was owned by the Armour Trust before being sold to the Scottish drinks company A.G. Barr plc for $5.8 million in 1972.^[7] As is the case with Barr's other famous drink Irn-Bru, Tizer's exact recipe has not been made public, although a list of ingredients and nutritional data is given on the product's packaging. In 2003, Tizer decided to sell other-flavoured versions of Tizer, such as "Purple" and "Green" versions.^[8] There was also a brief "fruitz" variation of Tizer in 2004.^[9] From 1996 to 2007, Tizer was stylised as T!zer.

In 2007, the company stopped using the "Ed the Head" mascot. Tizer was re-branded with the slogan "Original Great Taste" and a classic recipe with fewer additives and no E numbers. It was also given classic 1976 style packaging. However, despite the relaunch's focus of the addition of real fruit juice and the absence of artificial flavourings, colourings and sweeteners, in 2009 the recipe was returned to the original to remove the real fruit juice and reintroduce artificial flavourings, artificial colours and sweeteners (Acesulfame-K). Tizer was rebranded in 2011 with a new logo and the slogan "The Great British Pop".

Tizer Ice was launched in the late 1990s. The drink included menthol, giving it the sensation of tasting cold, even at room temperature. Later branded "Ice by Tizer", the product did not sell well and was removed from sale. Whilst known as Tizer Ice, the mascot of the drink was a variation of Ed the Tizer Head. Its sole video advertisement which was shown in cinemas featured a character known as the "Iceman".^[10]

A 1999 print advertisement which showed children with their faces pressed against a glass surface with the slogan "How many kids can you get in your fridge?" was criticised as "inappropriate" by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which had recorded deaths of children trapped inside refrigerators.^[11]

Tizer Diet was a short-lived low-calorie alternative to Tizer, originally sold in the late 1980s when known as Sugar Free Tizer, and again from 1997 to 2001 as Tizer Diet. Its 2001 advertising campaign included a bus shelter advertisement in the form of a funhouse mirror bearing the Tizer Diet logo, designed to make the viewer appear thinner.^[12]

In 1996, Tizer was rebranded, and the cans and bottles were redesigned to feature a new logo and a mascot, known as "Tizer Head" and later "Ed the Head". Ed appeared as a red-coloured human head, the top of which was opened so that Tizer could be poured in. Ed was played by actor Roger Moore's son.

A campaign for Tizer from 2001 saw the brand package four bottles of the drink in blue lunchboxes. This was inspired by the Tango lunchbox in 2000.

As part of a rebranding process in 2003, the cans were changed to red and Ed the Head's expression was changed to a smile. The ads featured a chef battling a lobster, a troop of gorillas and monkeys drawn in the style of the Gorillaz artwork. In 2004, Tizer aired a campaign depicting a red chameleon remaining the same colour despite a number of different coloured backgrounds—the campaign's slogan was "No, we're not changing colour."

In 1985, Tizer initiated a television campaign on TV-am exploring the "Tize-izer" vocabulary, depicting scenarios in which characters place "ize" between the syllables of words.^[13] A free, promotional flexidisc, featuring the voice of Spitting Image impressionist Rory Bremner, was produced as part of the campaign. The Evening Dispatch described Bremner as "doing the most to help people master the new language."^[13] The tongue twister-based language grew in popularity among children who, according to Isle of Wight County Press, would use the patois "to the complete bewilderment of mums and dads".^[14]

In April 1993, Tizer launched a £2.5 million television and cinema campaign, created by the agency BDH and Partners, which aimed the product at the 16–24 age group, rather than younger children.^[15] The novel campaign, which aimed for cult status and credibility, began with eight quirky television advertisements that the Manchester Evening News described as "completely off the wall".^[15] The word "Tizer" was never mentioned on air; instead, each commercial utilised a play-on-words, using parts of words that have "-tizer" as a suffix, such as "Bap-", "Adver-" and "Hypno-".^[15] As the prefix is left on screen, the viewer is left to add the missing word "Tizer" to decipher the theme.^[16] Each advert featured surreal representations and demonstrations of their respective classifications, such as raving young people and bottle jugglers; the actors – which BDH hired after scouting nightclubs in Manchester and London – appear in black-and-white against the bubbling red Tizer backdrop.^[15] BDH marketing manager believed that this "brave advertising approach" would help Tizer stand out against rivals like Tango, Lilt, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and fellow Barr product Irn-Bru.^[15]

The advertisements proved popular enough that BDH created a further seven, "even more anarchic" advertisements, debuting in May 1994 and running throughout the summer, in a £2 million extension of the campaign. New prefixes included "stigma-", "priva-" and "dogma-", with the unusual characters and scenarios used to express each term ranging from a beauty queen sipping a can of Tizer and conceding that she's "in it for the money", an obnoxious parrot who gives out parental orders, a "veggie militant", and a bulldog informing a crowd of dogs that "poop existed before pavements."^[17]

In July 1996, BDH Advertising launched a new, £1 million campaign for Tizer, featuring Live & Kicking presenter Simon Bright and the voice of radio DJ Chris Evans. Now aimed at the 5–15 age group, it was based around the "Tiz/Tizn't" motif, with advertisements comparing the effects of life with ("Tiz") and without ("Tizn't") Tizer. The launch included a £150,000 instant prize promotion, where purchasers could potentially win prizes such as hi-tech personal computer equipment or HMV vouchers.^[18]

A Tizer fan club for United Kingdom based consumers was launched in July 1991.^[19] The fan club was advertised in teenage magazines such as Smash Hits and cost £3.00 to join. In return the fan club member received a membership card and Tizer merchandise including a folder, stickers and Tizer branded wraparound sunglasses. The fan club was discontinued around 1993.

In 1997, Tizer sponsored the rave event Rezerection/Rez, on the basis that the reverse of the name is "Rez It" ("Tizer" backwards). It was the main soft drink available at the events. In the same year, Tizer took over the sponsorship of The Chart Show which was a Saturday morning music chart show on the ITV network in the UK.

From 23 January 1999, Tizer was the sponsor of the newly rebranded CD:UK which was the replacement for The Chart Show back in 1998.

Tizer sponsored a roller coaster in Southport called the "Traumatizer". The ride was closed with the park in 2006 and relocated to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where it became known as "Infusion".

Tizer are known for their distribution of drink fridges, both full-sized ones for restaurants, shops and cafés, and smaller "mini-fridges" for public sale. Their full-sized, illuminated drink fridges from 1997 to 2003 were blue, whilst 2003–2007 fridges were red. They also distribute mobile can coolers, normally for usage in shops, and vending machines.

Tizer was sold at the discontinued pizza restaurant chain, Pizzaland. In 1995, cans of Tizer offered that the specific can was "worth £1 at Pizzaland" when £4 or more was spent. That same year, Tizer were responsible for the "£150,000 worth of hi-tech prizes" competition, one of the biggest soft drink competitions at the time.

• "You Can Tell It's Tizer When Your Eyes Are Shut" (1980, 1982)
• "I'se Got The Ize" (1986)
• "Refresh Your Head" (1996–2003)
• "!tz a Red Thing" (2003–2007)
• "Live the Red Life" (2004, for Ringtones site)
• "Freeze Your Head" (1998, for Tizer Ice)
• "Don't Just Taste It. Feel It" (1999, for Ice from Tizer)
• "The Great British Pop" (2011–present)

For the slogans "Refresh Your Head" and "Freeze Your Head", the "R" in "Your", and the "E" and "D" in "Head", are highlighted so they spell out the word "Red".

The 1974 song "Back in Judy's Jungle" by Brian Eno mentions the soft drink,^[20] as does the 1983 song "Party, Party" by Elvis Costello, the 1991 song "King Leer" by Morrissey and in the Deacon Blue track Fellow Hoodlums.^[3]

• Tizer (1924–present)
• Tizer Lemon (1995–1996)
• Tizer Ice (1998–1999)
• Ice by Tizer (1999) (same as Tizer Ice, replacement)
• Diet Tizer (2001)
• Tizer Forest Fruits (2004)
• Tizer Orange (2004)
• Tizer Citrus (2004)
• Fruitz by Tizer (2004)

• Tizer website