Admittedly this is a fairly minor bit of weirdness, but I thought it was bizarre enough to be worth mentioning. The other day I bought some 2-liter bottles of supermarket-brand soda. This particular grocery store’s packaging art features silhouettes of people gadding about, similar to the original magazine ads for iPods. Various tiny advertising buzzwords radiate from their heads like a sort of halo: for their regular cola, the phrases are “spark,” “go with the flow,” “charged,” “oomph,” and “pop.” Their Mountain Dew knockoff (“Mountain Splash”) offers “zing,” “tangy,” “splash,” “knock it back,” and “hit it big.”
So far, so good. But their diet cola reads: “down-low,” “sparkle,” “nothing to lose,” “bubbly”-- and “leaded.” Yes, this diet cola proudly advertises itself as leaded. Though small, the print is quite clear, and I’m not sure what it could be a typo for-- “Leader?” The nutritional information makes no mention of the cola’s amount of lead per serving.
The only other possibility I can think of is that some underappreciated package designer decided to have a bit of fun at the expense of our current national state of media-driven plumbophobia. If so-- rock on, anonymous package designer! I hope you’re financially solvent and doing well. Your effort at levity was at least appreciated by me.
Really? Er… maybe. I couldn’t say offhand, as I don’t drink uncaffienated soda. In fact I never drink anything that doesn’t contain caffiene. At this point in my life I’m pretty sure that if I did, I would die.
“Leaded” and “unleaded” seems like a peculiar way to express that idea. Personally I’d use “high/low octane” myself. I’ve heard people metaphorically refer to exciting or powerful things as “high-octane,” but never “leaded.” (Also, it avoids mention of LEAD, which I would think important when advertising a beverage.)
“That new roller coaster really gives a leaded thrill ride!”
I don’t think it quite conveys the same energy as “high-octane.”
You are missing the point. Using “leaded” in that context isn’t intended to imply “energetic” or “powerful”. It’s intended to imply that it contains a commonly removed substance, or is a “full-strength” version of the product. Often you’ll hear Budweiser referred to as the “leaded” version of Bud Light or regular coffee as “leaded” compared to decaf.
Unleaded fuel isn’t less powerful than leaded fuel, it’s simply fuel with the lead removed. I might think of something like Red Bull as high octane because it’s got more caffeine (etc) than a “regular” drink, but with coffee and similar, the comparison to leaded/unleaded makes sense.
I have nothing to add except for the fact that what is now Mountain Splash used to be called Citrus Hit. The shelf tag therefore said CITRUSHIT and I can only assume that fact had something to do with the name change.
You must not be from the generation when unleaded gasoline was first introduced, when you went to the gas station and asked for “regular” or “unleaded.”
