Tango is back on our screens with a cheeky ad reminiscent of its groundbreaking viral campaign of the early 1990s. But this time, the spot is aimed at Gen Z, and the only thing dangerous about it all is the drink’s potent flavour.
Anyone old enough to remember their headteacher calling an emergency school assembly to warn us of the dangers of “getting tango’d”, will have a strangely fond relationship with the orange fizzy beverage.
If you don’t know or remember, Orange Man was a British phenomenon in the early 1990s – the first of Tango’s ‘You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d’ campaign, which would enjoy much success until 1996 and return for more fun and games in the 2000s.
Created by ad agency HHCL (Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury and Partners) – back then, a longtime collaborator of the brand – it featured an orange man slapping a Tango drinker across both cheeks as some kind of metaphor for tasting the liquid. Unsurprisingly, it became a hit, as no one else was doing anything like it then.
However, after reports of injuries in school playgrounds, it also sparked controversy when children began copying the spot. It was subsequently withdrawn, and two different versions of Orange Man took its place. Despite the setback, sales for Tango enjoyed a boost of more than a third. And it came third in a public poll of the best ads of all time.
With big shoes to fill, today sees the launch of ‘Warden’, a new integrated campaign created by VCCP London and its content creation studio Girl&Bear. It’s the latest ad from Tango as the brand continues to return to its iconic bold heritage.
It follows ‘Bust’, Tango’s comedic spot, which launched in 2023 and focused on a police raid busting a Tango Dark Berry lab. With the help of the first burst of the campaign, the Britvic brand has seen sales increase +12.8% since last April, and Tango is now the fastest-growing fruit-flavoured carbs brand amongst the top five in its category.
‘Warden’ is the second film within the “dangerously potent flavour” brand platform and is aimed at Gen Z. It lands the creative idea that Tango’s “dangerously potent flavour” leads to outrageously bold behaviour (i.e. getting Tango’d), as the brand continues on its mission to increase its market share and introduce a younger generation to the powerful taste of the orange drink.
As you’d expect, the spot is mischievous while retaining its classic British humour roots and is centred around a 30″ film produced by Girl&Bear and directed by renowned comedic director Ben Tonge, who also made last year’s film, ‘Bust’.
In the spot, we see that ‘contraband’ has been smuggled into a prison cell. The prison warden enters the cell and asks the inmate, Pilkins, to hand the item over, to which the offender replies: “What, sir? It’s just a bit of fizzy orange”. The drink is handed over to the officers, who reveal a hidden can of Tango inside a fake, generic bottle of fizzy orange. “It’s Tango Orange,” the warden remarks. “The most powerful flavour on the street. Send him to the hole!”.
As the prisoner is taken away, the warden dips his finger into the can to taste the ‘contraband’. A crazed look comes across the warden’s face before he puts his heart and soul into dancing up and down the hall – to no music – while alarms blare and prisoners look on in hysterical confusion.
There’s even an ‘easter egg’ featured in the ad: the Tango lab boss that was arrested in the original ‘Bust’ film is the prisoner that screams: “He’s completely Tango’d!”. Nicely done.
The campaign is supported by social content across Instagram and out-of-home across the UK. Each execution demonstrates Tango’s mischievous brand platform, with OOH displaying a can of Tango Orange front and centre, accompanied by ‘Give your tongue a citrusy spank’ or ‘Blow your oranges off’ and paid social that reads ‘Get off your face on flavour’.
The campaign launches today and will run until the end August across TV, BVOD, DOOH/OOH, social and TikTok.
