It happened to everyone in the office.

Sipping what she thought was a vodka-soda cocktail, Chels realised she had poured tonic into the mix instead.

Jasmine, on the other hand, ruined half her bottle of Cape Town Gin Company’s Classic Dry when she served her mates a round of drinks containing soda instead of tonic.

The common culprit? Schweppes.

Last year, the company changed up its branding, and it triggered a wave of feelings of betrayal amongst loyal consumers.

Due to the rebranding of their soda and tonic water, many consumers ended up with a bad taste in their mouth as their gin and tonic became a gin and soda.

If you don’t believe me, 702’s Stephen Grootes brought up the topic back in Jan and was met with a wave of agreements in response:

You see, what Schweppes did was change the look of their one-litre soda water by swapping its prominent black colour with a whole lot of silver (light grey?):

Why make the soda look so similar to the tonic? Come now, we don’t want to have to cross-reference labels when we’re grabbing some mix on the run.

That being said, are you really still drinking Schweppes? Here you are treating yourself to a gin and tonic, but you’re butchering it all with some bang average mix?

No, just no. We’ve wisened up and turned instead to the gorgeous – and obvious, colour-differentiated – bespoke mixer range from Fitch & Leedes:

Thanks to some fine branding, you’re never going to waste that bottle of spirits ever again.

Look at the options available – something for everyone. And yes, that Pink Tonic lives up to all the hype.

What else would you expect from a brand that makes an effort to take you back to an era when things were still hand-crafted, with the utmost care and quality?

A lesson learnt for Schweppes, I am sure, and more power to Fitch & Leedes.

[source:702&thedrum]