# UK dopers- WFLA- 80's soft drink- remember it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600 "2003-04-14T10:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/1 "2003-04-14T10:53:46Z")
Sorry, an utterly trivial inquiry I know, but does anyone else in the UK remember a short-lived soft drink from the early-to-mid-80’s called WFLA? Came in a carton, three flavours, slogan was ‘No tin, no fizz, no lobster’ (so no mystery why it didn’t catch on). The advertising consisted of cartoon-ish renderings of a variety of nonsensical scenes suggested by the initial letters WFLA- e.g. Winged Fraulein Lands Askew, Wives For Lovelorn Androids, etc. I’ve Googled, but no joy. Friends meet my recollections with blank stares. Anyone remember it? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/2 "2003-04-14T11:07:23Z")
In the early to mid 80s I was 1 to 6, so, no. ---
**Author:** ![brainfizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/3 "2003-04-14T11:12:33Z")
Only 80s drinks I can remember were Squirt, Quattro and Um Bongo. Don’t remember WFLA, but some things didn’t get to us down in the depths of Cornwall! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/4 "2003-04-14T11:15:12Z")
What about Panda Pops. God they were disgusting. I was around the UK for the whole of the '80s, and I don’t remember WFLA at all, though the “no lobster” rings a very slight bell. Whereas way down deep in the middle of the Congo, a hippo took an apricot a guava and a mango, he stuck it with the others and he danced a dainty tango, the rhino said “I know, we’ll call it Um Bongo”. ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/5 "2003-04-14T11:18:54Z")
Indeed, jjimm, and I believe I’m right in saying that the python picked the passionfruit, the marmoset the mandarin, the parrot painted packets that the whole caboodle landed in… ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/6 "2003-04-14T11:42:55Z")
STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT Ahem. Painful memories being reawakened there, but none, I’m afraid, about WFLA. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/7 "2003-04-14T11:56:25Z")
Oh yes, **hammos1** , and in conclusion, I believe that when it comes to sun and fun and goodness in the jungle, they all prefer the sunny funny one they call Um Bongo. I may be wrong, though. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/8 "2003-04-14T18:47:39Z")
He-e-ey it’s frothy m-a-an. [http://tv.cream.org/thecore/adfizz.htm](http://tv.cream.org/thecore/adfizz.htm) from here [http://tv.cream.org/index.htm](http://tv.cream.org/index.htm) and a few more memories [http://tv.cream.org/index.htm](http://tv.cream.org/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/9 "2003-04-14T19:13:55Z")
How can someone have such a vivid memory of WFLA and no one else has heard of it? Maybe it was a dream? ---
**Author:** ![noonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@noonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noonian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/10 "2010-07-07T19:08:47Z")
I remember that advert too. It was shown in the summer of 1983. It was also put onto billboards too. I remember the winged fraulien landing askew, she was a dark hard woman dressed in stockings and suspenders crash landing upside down on her bed. The wifes for love lorn androids ad featured irritated robots sitting in cars in which the road is grid locked. I remember the billboard slogan, White flamingo legs akimbo. The last part of the jingle when W.F.L.A, its crucial no tin no fizz no lobster (followed by a drum role). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/11 "2010-07-07T19:18:09Z")
Dunno, but you’re [not](http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Food-and-Drink/Question104978.html) the [only one](http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=8715) who remembers it. Plus, [this woman](http://www.urbantalent.tv/actor_profile/cv.asp?id=307) claims to have been in the ad campaign in her CV! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/12 "2010-07-07T19:31:44Z")
Speaking of Eighties, or maybe early Nineties… does anyone remember a bottled drink called Orbitz? It had white spheres floating in it, it was thick and transparent and cloyingly-sweet. I only ever bought one bottle, this was in Oakville, Ontario. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/13 "2010-07-07T19:33:27Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Plus, [this woman](http://www.urbantalent.tv/actor_profile/cv.asp?id=307) claims to have been in the ad campaign in her CV! She can’t spell “Apple Computers” right. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/14 "2010-07-07T19:57:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Speaking of Eighties, or maybe early Nineties… does anyone remember a bottled drink called Orbitz? It had white spheres floating in it, it was thick and transparent and cloyingly-sweet. I only ever bought one bottle, this was in Oakville, Ontario. I remember Orbitz. it was in my sophomore year college welcome pack. It was terrible. My girlfriend kept her bottle on a shelf. Eventually the little spheres fell to the bottom. Who wants a beverage with little snot balls floating in it? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/15 "2010-07-07T20:41:08Z")
Woken From Long Ago? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/16 "2010-07-07T21:41:55Z")
> [@that\_darn\_cat](#): > > I remember Orbitz. it was in my sophomore year college welcome pack. It was terrible. My girlfriend kept her bottle on a shelf. Eventually the little spheres fell to the bottom. Who wants a beverage with little snot balls floating in it? You got a welcome pack at college? Luxury! 🙂 I didn’t encounter bubble tea till later, but Orbitz was basically like the petrochemical industry’s attempt to make bubble tea. ---
**Author:** ![jimrosado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/db5fbb/32.png) [@jimrosado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimrosado)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/17 "2012-09-04T01:26:26Z")
lol i was hired by the Milk marketing board of england to promote this drink and was flown from the united states to England, still have my shirt that says “drink wfla” ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/18 "2012-09-04T02:09:35Z")
Ok…acknowledging this is a zombie…I have to ask. Is the “no lobster” completely nonsensical, or is there a cultural explanation that I’m missing from the US? -D/a ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/19 "2016-04-27T06:24:46Z")
Just re-exhuming this thread to add that- finally- someone has uploaded the WFLA ad to YouTube. Here it is: It turns out that the ad was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, creators of Max Headroom. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-wfla-80s-soft-drink-remember-it/168600/20 "2016-04-27T07:37:30Z")
Somehow my memories of these things stop at “Lovely Jubbly”. Or “You’ve been Tango-ed”