Abstract
In this chapter, Leishman analyses the imagery of health and physical strength in the marketing of the iconic beverage Barr’s Irn-Bru and studies how this plays into discourses of Scottish national identity. With a particular focus on discourses of masculinity in sport and industry, the chapter studies how the symbolism of iron as a material and vital mineral has shifted over time, from the Victorian market for medicines and healthful tonics to images of nationally-specific mental resilience with relevance for contemporary Britain. The overarching theme of national strength is also studied in relation to commodity consumption in a soft drinks market dominated by US brands such as Coca-Cola.
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Notes
- 1.
In recent years, as part of an ongoing drive to generate greater brand recognition in England, Barr’s also began to sponsor the UK Rugby League (2009) and the English football Championship League One and Two (2015) with Irn-Bru being designated at the official partner soft drink.
- 2.
The industrial imagery inherent in the drink’s name was likewise alluded to in the 1939 publication of Iron Brew by Stewart Holbrook, a history of iron and steel production in the United States.
- 3.
In 2006, Barr’s introduced a more overtly aggressive hardman character to advertise their short-lived energy drink Irn-Bru 32. Although intended to be humorous, the reaction was mixed and the ASA received a number of complaints about the violent tone of the ads. Although the complaints were not upheld and the ads continued to run (Sweeney 2006), the drink itself was discontinued a few years later.
- 4.
This can be observed throughout Britain for various bottlers of the drink during World War I. Shipstone’s Iron Brew in England, for example, published an ad presented as a letter from a foot soldier in which he hailed Iron Brew as the “Cause of the Great Victory!” This text-based ad detailed his comrade’s pleasure in finding a case of Iron Brew in the quartermaster’s stores and concluded that the drink’s reinvigorating properties would be certain to allow him to “last a little longer now” in the trenches. Similarly, soldiers and civilians were told by Burrows & Sturgess to “Keep Fit by Drinking Spa Iron Brew Daily” (1915).
- 5.
It should be noted that these Iron Brew ads appeared in a media landscape where commercial appeals using themes of national solidarity were commonplace. Many other brands were also advertising to insist that consuming their product would help keep up the strength and morale put under duress by wartime (Beecham’s Pills, Ovaltine, Anadin Tablets) or were insisting on the collective efforts needed to wait out the war until a popular product returned (“Total War Effort demands the withdrawal of Golden Shred, the World’s Best Marmalade / It will return with VICTORY” (Robertson’s and Sons); “Beattie’s Bread–Beattie’s will return when the Boys do!”).
- 6.
This is not necessarily a new trend. Pendergrast situates the first instances of Coca-Cola being seen as a symbol of US imperialism as early as the aftermath of Cuban independence in 1902 (Pendergrast 1993: 115).
- 7.
Since 2000, Coca-Cola too has nevertheless retreated from its prior “aggressively singular” global strategy, deploying strategies which allow for local iterations of its brand image (Foster 2008: 35). Coca-Cola was notably distributed in special promotional Robert Burns bottles to celebrate the 2009 Homecoming events, a move personally lauded by Alex Salmond (Sulieman 2009). Thus, as noted by Foster (1999: 266) and Holt (2004: 22–27), as an archetypal iconic brand, Coke has the power to shape national identity through advertising even outside the US.
- 8.
In Scotland, the distinctive Scottish predilection for carbonated beverages flavoured with the kola nut was noted as early as early as 1894 (“At the Breweries” 1894: 607). Following the invention of carbonated kola drinks in 1873 (Wills 1987: 72), several Scottish firms were reportedly selling “Scotch Kola”, “Sparkling Champagne Kola” or “Edinburgh Kola” as early as 1880 (Prangère 2002: 16). Already, in 1879, a trade notice reportedly informed enterprising American bottlers of the popularity of kola drinks in Scotland and encouraged them to introduce kola drinks in the US market (Henderson 2000: 181). Since Pemberton went on to launch Coca-Cola a few years later, Scotland is even considered by some as the national origin of this class of beverage (Wills 1987: 72; Henderson 2000: 181–182).
- 9.
The only example of Irn-Bru being associated with un-reconstructed US-themed advertising is an uncharacteristic 1980s billboard ad during the Girders campaign which featured Popeye squeezing a can of Irn-Bru (instead of the traditional spinach) into his mouth alongside the strapline “Heaven help Brutus” (Barr and Jephcott 2001: 42).
- 10.
“Couthie” can be defined as “agreeable, sociable, friendly, sympathetic”; “gallus” derived from “gallows” means variously “wild, unmanageable, ‘tough,’ bold, daring, high-spirited; perky, impish, mischievous, impudent”. Dictionary of the Scots Language, https://www.dsl.ac.uk.
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Leishman, D. (2020). From Girders: Discourses of National Strength. In: Consumer Nationalism and Barr’s Irn-Bru in Scotland. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53382-3_3
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