Baron Von Lemon was a delicious powdered drink, introduced in the then fast growing American market by the Pillsbury franchise during the late 1960’s or to be more precise, in 1967. Around the same time two more drinks of nature very similar to Baron Von Lemon were introduced into the American market; these two drinks were Crash Orange and Reginald Van Lime. These two powdered drinks were also made by the Pillsbury Company itself. At its inception, Baron Von Lemon was sold for ten cents a quart (it formed a quart after the addition of water).

Baron Von Lemon was one of the worlds first commercially sold lemonade, and it soon went on to become enormously popular with people belonging to all ages and transgressed across social and racial barriers prevalent at that time. This happened since at that time, most products were advertised for a certain section of people, but in the case of Baron Von Lemon, Pillsbury spread a wider net for a greater potential market and they were enormously successful in their revolutionary idea which would soon be adopted by many more companies in the future.

However, the sales of the powdered lemonade soon reached its high peak (which was phenomenal for that decade) and started its downward decent, facing the threat of being pushed into oblivion, but, the marketing strategy which was used for popularising the lemonade would persist in the minds of the people for a long time to come. As part of the marketing strategy, Pillsbury had introduced a comic series which chronicled the life of Baron Von Lemon who was a First World War fighter pilot; it was titled, “The Adventures of Baron Von Lemon.” This comic book was available for twenty five cents at any stationary or grocery store in any part of the United States of America, though now it is as elusive and exclusive as a collector’s item.

The distinguishing characteristic about Baron Von Lemon (which is also responsible for his very apt name) is the fact that he looks astonishingly similar to a lemon and his colour is yellow, very much like that of a lemon. The baron was supposed to have been born from the extract of a lemon, which evidently played a crucial role in shaping his crudely absurd appearance. His colleagues in these comic strips, not surprisingly were none other than the previously mentioned Pillsbury products: Crash Orange and Reginald Van Lime.

Baron Von Lemon was a character loved by the people for his absolute disregard for authority and also the comic’s deviation from all established norms of logic and intellect. To elaborate this, all we need to do is turn our attention to his statements like; “Our tax structure needs to change,” the catch in this phrase is that Baron Von Lemon uttered these words when he was still in his crib. Another absurdly funny tale stated in Baron Von Lemons chronicles is the way he got his ‘Baron hood’, all he did was to go to his squadron leader and point out that he was the only one with a plane in flying condition.

Thus, the story of Baron Von Lemon became a comic legend with the people and the strategy to popularise the lemonade became a legend within the corporate community.

Funny Face Drink Mix was started by the Pillsbury Company in 1964. Initially it was started as a diet drink. It was a diet drink because, it contained no sugar but only artificial sweeteners were added to it. Funny Face Drink Mix used calcium cyclamate as a sweetener. But later calcium cyclamate was changed to saccharine because the FDA had banned cyclamates. But then it was promoted by Pillsbury as a children’s drink. Funny Face Drink Mix had a wide range of flavors. Pillsbury gave each of its flavors a unique character or a unique funny face. Due to effective advertising campaigns it appealed to a lot of children. Even parents preferred Funny Face Drink Mix because it contained no added sugar and was a very healthy alternative to carbonated drinks and fruit juices.

Before the production of Funny Face Drink Mix, Kool Aid was the market leader for children’s drinks. Funny Face Drink Mix faced direct competition with Kool Aid. Kool Aid Man was the only character which Kool Aid promoted while Funny Face Drink Mix promoted several characters. There was a unique character for each flavor. The flavors included:

• Lefty Lemonade which was later renamed as Lefty Lemon Lime
• Goofy Grape
• Freckle Face Strawberry
• Loud Mouth Lime which was later renamed as Loud Mouth Punch
• Rootin Tootin Raspberry
• Chinese Cherry which was later renamed as Choo Choo Cherry
• Injun Orange which was later renamed as Jolly Olly Orange
• Captain Black Cherry
• Rah! Rah! Root Beer
• Chilly Cherry Cola
• Pistol Pink Lemonade
• Ruddy Tutti Frutti
• “With It” Watermelon

Funny Face Drink Mix also had its own share of problems. On 2nd February 1966, Native Americans started protesting against the flavor Injun Orange of the Pillsbury Company. According to the Native Americans, the name Injun Orange was offensive label. Similarly many Asians also had a problem with the name Chinese Cherry. Therefore Pillsbury had to change the name Injun Orange to Jolly Olly Orange and Chinese Cherry to Choo Choo Cherry.

Pillsbury also had to entirely redesign the packaging of Funny Face Drink Mix because of the ban on cyclamates. Since Pillsbury could not use cyclamates, saccharine was used. But consumers immediately recognized the change in taste of the drink. Saccharine left an after taste in the drink which led to a severe drop in the sales of the product. Since Saccharine did not work, Funny Face Drink Mix did not add any sweetener at all. The products were again redesigned. The product design now included a “Just add sugar” label on it. Vitamin C was also added to the product. This helped in increasing the sales of the product immensely. Funny Face Drink Mix did very well against its competitor the Kool Aid Man.

Funny Face Drink Mix eventually lost its charm and hence was sold to Brady Enterprises. Brady Enterprises tried to revive the Drink Mix by starting anew flavor – Chocolate. But the flavor had a revolting name called Moo Juice. That was the end of Funny Face Drink Mix.

- Seema Khinnavar