Solo Man

Solo Man is the long lasting marketing campaign which begun in the 1970s after the release of the drink. The most recent Solo Man advertisement was released in 2018. With a history of almost 50 years, the Solo Man marketing campaign tracks an Australian man partaking in adventurous and extreme sports in order to ‘earn’ the drink.^[3] Solo Man has been portrayed as a very ‘macho’, traditionally masculine man. The 2018 “thirst worthy effort” campaign launched by TBWA\Melbourne redefines the Solo Man by partaking in more domestic activities.^[11]

Activities in which the Solo Man would partake in with their relevant YouTube videos are listed:

• Kayaking down rapids^[12]
• Riding a wagon towed by horses^[13]
• Riding a catamaran^[14]
• Driving a yellow speed boat^[15]
• Wrestling a brumby^[16]
• Playing squash^[17]
• Horse riding^[18]
• Fishing for a shark^[19]
• Windsurfing^[20]
• Arm wrestling^[21]
• Doing a triathlon^[22]
• Safety rafting down rapids^[23]
• Kayaking off a cliff^[24]
• Wrestling a saltwater crocodile^[25]
• Driving a jeep through a store^[26]
• Fixing a jetty as a carpenter and wakeboarding on an esky lid^[27]
• Dragging a shark home^[28]
• Chasing a barrel of lemons^[29]

Ad slogans including "The thirst crusher" and "Light on the fizz, so you can slam it down fast" were used in advertising until the early 1990s.^[24] A tag line common in the television advertisements in the 1970s and 1980s was: "You've never tasted a lemon drink like Solo before. Unless it's one of those great lemon squashes that pubs used to make. Extra lemon tang, and not too many bubbles. Solo lemon: a man's drink.".^[3]

In 2012, the Solo Man was re-introduced by BMF advertising agency as part of a new Solo advertising campaign, and starred Adam Demos. This is the origin story of the Solo Man who is swinging an axe in colonial Australia, puts lemons in a barrel that rolls away and gives chase down hills, later chugging the entire barrel himself in the Solo Man stance.^{[30][31][32][3]} In this year, BMF advertising agency also created a new tagline for Solo: “Go hard, go solo”. This involved Solo Man partaking in an obstacle course to earn the drink. In this year, BMF also introduced limited edition designs on solo cans as a social media promotion strategy. It involved the cans’ design having one letter or a hashtag out of the 7 potentials: #, G, O, H, A, R, D.^[33]

In 2018, Solo changed the original character traits of Solo Man by portraying him with a less macho presentation.^[11] In these commercials he is a dad who makes costumes for a play, has a dog and puts together flat pack furniture. It came with the tag line "A Thirst Worthy Effort".^[3][11]

Sport sponsorship

In 2009, Schweppes Australia commenced a three-year partnership deal with Football Australia, whereby the 'Goal of the Year' was known as 'SOLO Goal of the year.^[38][39] BMF advertising featured Australian football player Harry Kewell. This campaign was an attempt to bring 'crushed can football' back to Australian streets. This game involves crushing a Solo can after finishing the drink and kicking it around on the street.^[40]

In 2011, prior to the Football world cup in South Africa, Solo and BMF launched an online campaign called 'lucky undies' in support of the Australian Socceroos. This campaign involved the production of 225,000 garments of yellow underwear to be sold online or with the drink. Paired with a 1-minute advertisement on TV, the rest of the marketing was left to social media. The result of this was a subsequent 31,000 fan film views on social media.^[41] On May 24, 2010, Spectators of a Socceroos match held in Melbourne were handed these bright yellow underwear to wear over their clothes.^[42]

Masculinity in marketing

Positioned as a highly masculine drink, Solo adopts masculine marketing techniques and targets a male audience in their brand image, advertising campaigns and television commercials.^[43] This marketing strategy incorporates techniques such as portraying men through "bravery, adventurousness, being able to think rationally, being strong and effective".^[44]

Historically, Solo's advertising techniques have been focused on the traditional and stereotypical aspects of masculinity in their marketing campaigns. The macho nature of the Solo Man is evident in the character partaking in extreme sports in order to ‘earn’ the drink. The portrayal of Solo Man follows common techniques used in gender advertisements. These techniques include men being alert and conscious of surroundings, standing upright, gripping things tightly with their hands, eyes open and looking around, controlled bodies, being serious and being physically active.^[45] Since being launched, Solo has progressed this masculine advertising through different extreme sporting adventures.^[3]

Solo's marketing campaign predominantly focuses on the male demographic in Australia. The reasoning for this can be attributed to the fact that in Australia in the 2017–2018 period, men were two times more likely to have a soft drink per day compared to women.^[46]

Since 2018, Solo's “thirst worthy effort” campaign produced by TBWA advertising agency reconsiders the initial idea of what it meant to be a Solo Man. Breaking from tradition, the advertising adapts to society's changing cultural perception of gender norms and redefines the Solo Man to partake in more domestic and household activities, such as constructing furniture and making costumes for a school play.^[11]

Listed ingredients

• Carbonated water
• Sugar
• Reconstituted lemon juice (5%)
• Food acids (330, 331)
• Natural flavour
• Preservative (211)
• Natural colour (safflower extract)

Additives

• E330 - Citric acid
• E331 - Sodium citrates
• E211 - Sodium benzoate

A typical 375 mL can of Solo contains 43.1 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fat, 0.2 grams of protein and 68 milligrams of sodium, containing 750 kJ of energy.^[54]