Kia-Ora

This article is about the soft drink. For the greeting in Māori, see Kia ora.
Kia-Ora
Type Soft drink
Manufacturer The Coca-Cola Company
Country of origin Australia[1]
Introduced 1903[1]

Kia-Ora is a concentrated fruit soft drink brand, made by Atlantic Industries (a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company) and licensed for manufacturing in the UK by Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd. The juice drink is sold in a concentrated state.

History

The brand takes its name from kia ora, a Māori language greeting which has entered New Zealand English and means literally "be well/healthy". The first Kia-Ora was a lemon squash sold by Arthur Gasquoine in Sydney, Australia Sydney, Australia, in 1903. The brand was soon sold to the Dixon Family in 1903, with the first Factory being established by Roland Dixon in Prahran, Victoria. The original factory smoke stack still exists and is now a heritage-listed building. The first bottle off the line is still in the hands of the Dixon family, as is the original recipe for the Chilli Cordial, one of the first flavours launched, alongside orange and lemon flavours. Kia-Ora was launched in Great Britain in 1917 in the orange and lemon flavours.

The success of Kia Ora prompted the Dixon family to expand the range of their drinks, and this led to many other flavours emerging; orange mixed fruit, raspberry, and pear were just a handful of the flavours created to accommodate the ever expanding range of Kia Ora. No-added-sugar variants were also created. Kia-Ora continued to prosper throughout the 20th century, with the World Wars only affecting the brand slightly in terms of production. The brand remained popular amongst children aged 3-10 in both Australia and the United Kingdom. From 1953, Kia-Ora was advertising with full-colour posters.

The brand became incredibly popular in the 1970s within the UK. Kia-Ora was widely available in cinemas as a ready-to-drink product in cartons, paired with an advertisement spoofing the Columbia Pictures logo. In 1982, Kia-Ora launched a colourful, animated advertising campaign directed by Oscar Grillo at Klacto Animations, which used the jingle "We all adore a Kia-Ora", and featured a child in a straw hat, a dog called Fedora who served the drink, and multiple crows who pursued the boy for a drink, with the boy responding with "it's too orangy for crows". Later promotions included Caramba's song "Fido" and the jingle was referenced in the Spaced episode "Gone". The adverts attracted a degree of controversy in later years, with claims of implicit racism, since the boy is designed similarly to a golliwog. The brand was refreshed in 1987, with a series of adverts directed by Geoff Dunbar, with redesigned characters, the introduction of the boy's chubby father, and new variations on the jingle.

The success of the Kia Ora brand slowly declined. Rival juice producers such as Robinsons overtook Kia Ora in the United Kingdom. Coca Cola couldn't keep up with the wide range of flavours and styles of Kia Ora, which led to it discontinuing all variations, except sugar-free orange and sugar-free mixed fruit due to the demand of the drink amongst die-hard fans. The advertising campaigns that Kia Ora had been relying on for over 50 years had also been failing, due to criticism from the public that the brand was built on negative values such as racism and obesity. Kia Ora barely survives as of today, however it has stood the test of time to remain in production by the Coca Cola Company.

Variations

Name Status
Kia-Ora Orange Discontinued
Kia-Ora Orange (No added sugar) In Production
Kia-Ora Mixed Fruit Discontinued
Kia-Ora Mixed Fruit (No added sugar) In Production
Kia-Ora Pear & Blackcurrant Discontinued
Kia-Ora Raspberry Discontinued

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Our Brands". Coca-Cola. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
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