The UnCola
 

When looking at the history and ad campaigns for this perky little refreshment it becomes clear that the waning popularity of this soft drink—once third in popularity—is  not due to bad marketing or faulty product.  7-Up has had some of the most popular, witty and memorable ad campaigns including the 1930s ‘You like It, It Likes You,’ the UnCola campaign (a reversal of the Coca-Cola glass commercials), the Spot commercials and most recently the ‘Up Yours’ ads with Orlando Bloom.  It has to do with a quirky variation of supply and demand – there isn’t enough supply and so there is less demand. 

In 1868, Charles Leiper Grigg was born in Price's Branch, Missouri.  As an adult he moved across the state to St. Louis, where he discovered the business of soft drinks.  He works for a couple of companies developing orange flavored drinks, but then struck out on his own, starting the Howdy company, named after one of the orange drinks he had previously invented.  
 

After focusing on lemon-lime flavors instead of orange (due to the dominating popularity of the Orange Crush brand), Grigg produced the new drink ‘Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas’ in October 1929.  This name (fortunately) was quickly changed to 7-Up Lithiated Lemon-Lime.  By 1936, the name was further shortened to the easy and memorable 7-Up.
 

It is unclear how the name 7-Up was originated (for that matter, where did he get Bib-Label?) Some theories are unusual: he saw it on a branded cow, or was inspired while playing dice. Some are practical: the original drink had 7 ingredients and came in a 7 ounce bottle.  But rumor aside, the drink did originally contain lithium citrate, a health fad at the time which is now used to treat depression and bipolar disorder.  This is not so unusual; most of the soft drinks at the time were peddled with claims of health benefits.  The lithium was removed in the 50s.
 

7-Up was and still is marketed as a healthier soft drink—it still claims to be 100% natural.  (There is some backlash about this, as man-made high fructose corn syrup is ingredient #1.)  In the 1960s, the company introduced ‘Like,’ a diet version which was later called Sugar Free 7-Up, and then changed again in the 1979 to Diet 7-Up.  In late 1980s the company introduced Cherry 7-Up and Diet Cherry 7-Up.  New to the brand is 7-Up Plus, which contains vitamins and minerals, as well as real juice.
 

So how did this once-popular brand fall from grace?  In the 1980s, the Coca-Cola company, in an effort to challenge the 7-Up brand with its own version of lemon-lime soda, Sprite, forced its bottling companies to forego 7-Up in favor of exclusively bottling the Coca-Cola product.  This severely reduced the availability of 7-Up and allowed Sprite to take over in market share.  In the 1990s PepsiCo took the same action with its bottling plants in favor of its product Sierra Mist.  This left 7-Up to the independent and small bottlers with limited distribution channels, effectively limiting consumer access to 7-Up in all but local or major chain stores.  
 

This potent potable was the preferred beverage of many a child. Whether this was because they actually liked it or because it was the only soda healthy moms would let them drink on special occasions, grown-up fans of 7-Up still seek this special treat today.