Insight into Lilt’s controversial history of smacking ads accused of “cultural appropriation” before the drink was dropped from Coca-Cola

Soft drink Lilt was canned after 50 years on UK shelves.

The spicy tropical pop – a household favorite since 1975 – is renamed Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit.

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Coca Cola, which owns the brand, stressed that the taste and ingredients of the drink would not change when the new bottles and cans were launched on February 14.

But the crushing of the popular can has shattered her controversial history, which has accused her ads of cultural appropriation.

In a famous 1981 commercial, Lilt was served to white people on a Caribbean beach.

Reggae music blares in the background as grinning girls in bikinis sip the fizzy drink, but no black people are to be seen.

While in 1986, the advert revealed the “Lilt Man,” a milkman parody that delivered the drink in a “Lilt Float” on a beach when a new flavor was introduced.

Other ads included white people stumbling around Caribbean markets buying pineapple and grapefruit, the ingredients for the lemonade.

Then, in the 1990s, “Lilt Ladies” Blanche Williams and Hazel Palmer, both Jamaicans, promoted pop.

They have since gone viral after it was revealed that Lilt no longer exists.

The slogan “The Totally Tropical Taste” accompanied the marketing strategy throughout.

But Brinsley Dresden, a marketing law expert at law firm Lewis Silkin, wrote in 2020, blasting the campaigns.

They accused the brand of saying “the cultural appropriation is clear enough” in the ads.

Of the 1981 ad, they explained, “Even the waiter who hands out glasses of cool, refreshing Lilt to handsome young Caucasians appears to be white.”

Critics also accused the ad of stereotyping and suggested that renaming it to make the pop look more like Fanta was the right decision.

In a statement, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners said: “Avid Lilt fans may have noticed a gradual transition as the drink made its way into the Fanta family over the past few months, with changes to packaging and logos.”

But the move has been echoed by some, who claim the train has “woken up”.

One said: “I can’t believe Lilt woke up. Is nothing sacred?”

Another raged: “What bright group did Lilt upset that this nonsense had to happen?”

But another offered a different take, chiming: “Roses are red, Mark King is a bassist, I’ll miss all the lilt ads that were a little bit racist.”

Fanta Brand Manager Charlotte Walsham wanted to reassure fans that Lilt “just changed her name”.

She added, “Our main priority with this announcement is to reassure Lilt’s loyal fanbase that absolutely nothing has changed when it comes to the iconic taste of the drink they know and love.”

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