Um Bongo
Encyclopedia
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
drink sold in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, manufactured by Gerber Juice Company Limited under the name Libby's
Libby's
Libby's is a U.S.-based food company known for its canned food.The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef...
.
History
Um Bongo was first created in 1983, and originally in MilnthorpeMilnthorpe
Milnthorpe is a large village within the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. Straddling the A6 road, the town contains several old hostelries and hosts a market in The Square every Friday...
, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, but is currently produced at Gerber's plant in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. Um Bongo contains a blend of 9 different types of fruit, and was sold in either 250ml (x9) cartons or 1 little carton.
Formula change
Return of Original Um Bongo
From the time Libby'sLibby's
Libby's is a U.S.-based food company known for its canned food.The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef...
changed the formula, the company received many complaints. This resulted in their deciding to bring back the original Um Bongo formula in 2009. "Classic" Um Bongo was originally renamed "Um Bongo Tropical" and was also repackaged in new plastic 500ml bottles and placed in the chilled section of supermarkets/consumer shops. Libby's
Libby's
Libby's is a U.S.-based food company known for its canned food.The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef...
set up a website along with Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
accounts, to help gather additional support.
Since May 2011, Original version is now back in the shops, with 500ml bottle and 200ml carton, which can be bought from Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
stores. 100% Topical juice version has since been discontinue and replace with Original.
Europe
Gerber Foods Soft Drinks Limited only exports and produces its products to Europe, originally under the Libby's. Um Bongo is also produced in Portugal and Spain along with a different version of the recipe and of the advert.It was believed it was unlikely that Um Bongo is drunk in either the Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...
or the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, but the Portuguese version has been spotted for sale in a 'Jambo mart' in Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...
in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
.
Advert
Um Bongo is particularly famous for its long running (sung) sloganSlogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
of "Um Bongo Um Bongo They Drink It In The Congo", used with the accompanying animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advert
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
since 1985.
The song was sung by the late Tony Jackson, who at the time was a backing vocalist for Paul Young
Paul Young
Paul Antony Young is an English pop musician. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & The Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, his following solo success as a solo recording artist turned him into a 1980s teenage pop idol...
and Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean is a Trinidad-born English Grammy Award winning popular music performer who had a string of rhythm and blues international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British-based R&B singer / songwriter of the early to mid-1980s...
, but later became a member of the urban dance band 'Rage', best known for their cover version of Bryan Adams' Run to You
Run to You
Run to You may refer to any of these songs:*"Run to You" *"Run to You" *"Run to You" *"Run to You", a song by Dina Carroll*"Run to You", a song by Plus One*"Run to You", a song by Anne Haigis...
which reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1992. The music and lyrics were composed by Andy Blackford, now creative partner in the advertising agency KB49, and are available here: Um Bongo Website. The jingle was produced by Andre Jacquemin, musical composer, arranger and producer to Monty Python.
The advert itself was created by Oscar Grillo at Klacto Animations. Their earlier 1984 Kia-Or advert established a new trend and led to them being commissioned to make the Umbongo for Leo Burnett..
Other versions
Libby'sLibby's
Libby's is a U.S.-based food company known for its canned food.The company was founded as Libby, McNeill & Libby in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef...
have created two other types of fruit drink since 1980's:
Libby's - Moonshine, which lasted until 1992, contained more domestic fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, apples, blackberries and cherries. The animated adverts contained the slogan "Moonshine, looks pretty weird but it tastes just fine".
In 1999, Um Bongo gained a sister drink called "Um Ognob", where Bongo was spelled backwards, The new flavour, Contain a blend of apple, banana, apricot, orange and passion fruit juice, but it was removed around 2002.