Sprite Brand Appropriation

The example of brand appropriation we have chosen is Sprite. While the brand is known for being a common soda, over the years the popularity of using it for drinking cough syrup has grown. Now, we are in an era where it is common to hear rappers mention drinking lean, sizzurp, or purple drank in their songs. Along with this, we have seen some artists, such as Future, release not one, but two albums titled Dirty Sprite. It is easy to see that this type of usage falls far from the intended use of Sprite and is most likely not what the company wants the brand to be associated with. With this appropriation occurring we must look deeper into what it means for Sprite and their brand and how they should position themselves with the increasing attention

By the 1980s, Sprite had become extremely popular amongst teenagers, encouraging Sprite to begin targeting young people in advertisements. Throughout the 1990s, Sprite developed their “Obey Your Thirst” campaign which featured prominent Hip Hop musicians such as A Tribe Called Quest, Kris Kross, Kid ‘n Play, and Missy Elliott, as well as NBA players Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan to engage young, urban youth. Sprite’s relationship with Hip Hop and NBA players is still evident today with its work with Drake and the newly released commercial featuring NBA Champion Lebron James and the up and coming rapper, Lil

If the recognition of this use for Sprite was limited to the music it is often contained in and the lives of the rappers who indulge in it, the situation would possibly be better for Sprite. However, recently much attention has been drawn to the use of Sprite for drugs. After being used in Southern cities for years, the use of Sprite for being mixed with cough syrup to make the popular drink has become more recognized in mainstream media. Now, we have more popular rappers discussing its use in their music, showing it alongside cough syrup in social media postings, and more light has been placed on the impacts around those consuming it. The Sprite brand, has become tied to pharmaceutical companies, such as Actavis, discontinuing their production of a popular cough syrup because of its use in what can be a dangerous concoction typically made with Sprite. Along with this, the brand is being associated with drug busts throughout the U.S., and as a health hazard for celebrities and others who partake in the cocktail. Much attention was placed on the negative effects of the drink when rapper Lil Wayne was hospitalized in 2016 after suffering multiple seizures after consuming too much of the infamous dirty sprite