Flintstones Fruit Fizz Fizzee Fruit Drink
A California-made soda, test marketed mostly in Ohio, with blips elsewhere.
In late 1987, American Financial Corporation acquired control of Great American Broadcasting’s Hanna-Barbera animation studio. American Finanical’s founder Carl Lindner described the company as being under-performing, with its “licensing potential was largely tied down by outdated and unproductive contracts,” according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The new owners put the characters into overdrive, replacing an in-house licensing department with Hamilton Projects Inc. of New York.
One of the many licensed products has largely fallen through the cracks on the pop culture-loving internet, with only 28 results: Flintstones Fruit Fizz Fizzee Fruit Drink.
It was described thusly in 1989, “a vitamin C-enriched fruit drink made from fruit juice and sparking water.” The product was 70% fruit juice, according to a grocery ad. It came in Cherry, Orange, Grape, and Fruit Punch flavours.
“It’s being test-marketed in Columbus by a California company,” the article noted. Therein lies the reason it’s been overlooked, a limited release. After the test market in Ohio, run from roughly June 1989 to December 1990, it’s a briefly promoted blip in Orlando and Tallahassee (November 1989 only), and St. Louis, Missouri (June 1990 only).
Ad from a flyer included in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 June 1990.
There’s mention of the product in a chart of recyclables published in Rochester, New York (September 1990), but no evidence it was actually sold locally. This page does tell us, though, that it was sold in a clear plastic beverage container.
It’s possible that cans of the product survive. Cocoa Beach, Florida resident Karen Lee was interviewed by her local paper in 1994, which mentioned the product as being in her collection.
At least two television ads were created, by Playhouse Pictures. One is set at Barney Rubble’s house, and another in a factory. The firm, which is primarily remembered for its ads, at times had a staff full of Hanna-Barbera ex-pats. The animator of the first ad mentioned is known to be comic book artist Scott Shaw, who drew a Flintstones comic book for Marvel Comics and Harvey Comics.
An animation cel sold by Heritage Auctions in 2014.
At the moment, online auction house Heritage Auctions is selling a set of animation drawings and model drawings for an ad. It seems that labels for the product were giant stamps, licked by a dangling, prehistoric turtle.
A cel from the same ad was listed in 2014:
It was preceded by Yabba Dabba Dew, a “fun fruit drink, made just for you.”
An open question
An unresolved matter in this article: which California company marketed this product? The only label images online are too low resolution to read the label.
Hanna-Barbera Productions itself owned the trademark on Flintstones Fruit Fizz, which automatically cancelled in 1997. The labels list Fizzee Fruit Drink as if a generic category, but it’s not trademarked. “Fruit Fizz” by itself wasn't trademarked until 2005, by Welch Foods, the concord grape juice people.
Sources
Jon Newberry, “There’s nothing to laugh at as cartoons strive for profits,” Cincinnati OH: The Cincinnati Enquirer, 21 August 1989, page D1.
Smith’s Cardinal grocery store ad, Marion OH: The Marion Star, 9 July 1989, page 6C.
Lofino’s flyer, Dayton OH: Dayton Daily News, 24 December 1990, unnumbered.
Publix ad, Tallahassee FL: Tallahassee Democrat, 9 November 1989, page 7E.
Publix ad, Orlando FL: The Orlando Sentinel, 9 November 1989, page H8.
St. Louis MO: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 June 1990, page
Recyclable items chart, Rochester NY: Democrat and Chronicle, 9 September 1990, page 4.
Jocelyn R. Coleman, “Flintstone film sets fan rockin’”, Cocoa FL: Florida Today, page 1D.
[Jocelyn R. Coleman], “A piece right out of history,” Cocoa FL: Florida Today, page 2D.