March 06, 2004
Great moments in branding
Sarsi drink bottle, as seen at the Tan-A Market, Horsepen Road and West Broad Street. Just the one bottle sitting alone in a carton of other drink items. Out of the corner of my eye, I missed the terminal "i" and read the label as "Sars" and immediately thought of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome—"Hah! SARS Cola! I wonder how well that stuff sells." Probably not the association the beverage company wants us to have, as witnessed by the fact that I merely photographed the bottle and didn't buy it.
A little online research turns up the following:
Sarsi is not a cola, it's a sarsaparilla carbonated drink. Its flavor is compared to mosquito ointment (at the bottom of the page), or is described merely as "inexplicable". Also, "Sarsi" is the name of a native American tribe and I found a couple pages that seem to be written in Sarsi. I doubt there's any connection to the beverage.
Also at the Tan-A, we saw a packing carton labeled "Dragon Dude" jelly drink, but we couldn't find any Dragon Dude brand goods in the store. We'll try again next time. We did find some tasty black sesame candy from Vietnam.
My misreading adventures didn't end at the oriental market. When we dropped by the video place, I saw a great movie poster for Rise of the Hobbits. Alas, it was only Jet Li's Rise to Honor. Too bad. I think I would have liked to see the hobbits: "Yeah, we're short and furry, but we're badasses! Or at least we will be after second breakfast."
The world out the corner of my eye is such an interesting place.
279 words | March 6, 2004 03:52 PM | Real true story