A&W Root Beer is an American brand of root beer that was founded in 1919 by Roy W. Allen and primarily available in the United States and Canada. Allen partnered with Frank Wright in 1922, creating the A&W brand and inspiring a chain of A&W Restaurants founded that year. Originally, A&W Root Beer sold for five cents ().

The rights to the A&W brand (except in Canada) are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which in turn licenses the brand to the U.S.-based A&W Restaurant chain. A&W Root Beer products are distributed via various U.S. bottlers. A&W Food Services of Canada, which is independent of both Keurig Dr Pepper and the U.S. restaurant chain, is responsible for the restaurants and marketing of root beer products in Canada, with retail products bottled and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. The U.S. variant is also sold as an import drink in Southeast Asia and Italy (where A&W has restaurants), as well as in Australia, Chile, and other countries.

History

Roy W. Allen opened a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California in 1919, using a formula he had purchased from a pharmacist. He soon opened stands in Stockton, and five stands in nearby Sacramento where "tray boys" pioneered drive-in curbside service.

In 1922, Allen partnered with Frank Wright, birthing the A&W brand name. Allen bought Wright out, obtained a trademark, and began selling restaurant franchises - creating one of the early restaurant chains in the United States. Franchise owners could use the A&W name and logo and purchased concentrated root beer syrup from Allen. However, there was no common menu, architecture, or set of procedures, and some chose to sell food as well.

By 1933 there were 170 A&W franchises. In 1971, United Brands formed a wholly owned subsidiary, A&W Distributing Co., to retail its root beer. After test runs in Arizona and California (Phoenix, Tucson and San Diego), In 1984, it had an advertising budget of $10 million. In 1986, Hicks & Haas and management bought A&W from the investor group.

A&W Cream Soda and A&W Diet Cream Soda were introduced and distributed nationally in 1986, followed in 1987 by the reformulation of A&W Sugar-Free as Diet A&W. Also in 1986, A&W acquired Squirt. The company went public in 1987 and also acquired Vernors.

In November 2020, Diet A&W was rebranded as A&W Zero Sugar.

Brands

  • A&W Sugar-Free was introduced in 1974

Advertising

The beverage made an advertising campaign in 1978 under the tagline "Now New York Has Everything", which was created to promote the arrival of A&W Root Beer in the New York metro area. For this end, the A&W Distributing Company signed a one-year $1 million advertising contract with Humphrey Browning MacDougall in March 1978. The goal was to remedy its geographic disparities (although it was the leading root beer brand, at the time, it had a penetration of 46% of the national population) and was meant to boost sales of root beer, which was the fourth most-sold type of soft drink. In the markets where it was available, it was advertised under its "frosty mug taste" tagline. New York received a special campaign featuring four 30-second spots about people from various parts of the United States who moved to New York and noticed the lack of the beverage. There was also a longer 60-second spot that ran on April 18, 1978 on the six commercial VHF stations in the area. In April 1984, a new commercial began circulating on American television. It emulated beer commercials on the onset, featuring two lumberjacks in a rustic tavern. Halfway through the commercial, one of the lumberjacks was desiring a mug of A&W Root Beer. This campaign coincided with a change in its distribution scheme, which was now targeting truck drivers and sales representatives, who distributed the product to roughly half of the national population. For two periods during the summer of 1984, A&W would only advertise the floats. The campaign was advertised on network TV, 90 media markets and, for the first time, cable, booking slots on MTV and WTBS, the latter during Night Tracks. The sugar free version was set to be advertised alongside an exercise program on Lifetime. In the summer of 1992, a campaign featuring David Leisure as Joe Isuzu was carried on American television, continuing A&W's fad of recovering older celebrities who starred in commercials.

The soda started using the "frosty mug taste" tagline in the fall of 1992, coinciding with its new packaging and plans to rebound its marketing for 1993. In May 1999, it unveiled the "It's Good to be Thick Headed" campaign for network and cable. This consisted of three commercials: "Mr. Dumass" (in which a job applicant mispronounces the name of the owner as "Mr. Dumbass"), "Bachelor Party" (where a dim-witted husband and his wife are put inside a doghouse) and "Witness Protection". These commercials, whose target audience was mainly male sports fans, were discarded at the end of 2001 and set to be replaced by a new set of commercials for a broader demographic, as research revealed that the drink was also popular with teen girls.

Promotions and contests

  • Through eBay, A&W and Jim Belushi offered a trip to Los Angeles with a VIP pass to the "A&W Ultimate All-American Cookout and Concert" at the House of Blues.
  • In celebration of its 100th anniversary, A&W offered a free two-liter bottle of its root beer in exchange for taking the Family Fun Pledge, which asked participants to be "technology-free for one hour every Friday night this summer."

The Great Root Bear

thumb|150px|Rooty in his Canadian version

The Great Root Bear, also called Rooty, became the mascot for A&W Root Beer in 1973.

In a long-running television advertising campaign for the Canadian A&W chain, his theme was a tuba-driven jingle entitled "Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum". The jingle was released as a single by Attic Records in Canada. It was credited to "Major Ursus", a play on the constellation name Ursa Major, which means "great bear". The famous Canadian composer and B.C. Hall of Fame enshrinee Robert Buckley helped compose the song.

In late 2011, the new ownership of A&W began using the mascot again, particularly in A&W's online presence.

A&W Restaurants

thumbnail|upright|A&W Restaurants logo

Shortly after Allen bought out Wright's portion of the business he began franchising the product. His profits came from a small franchise fee and sales of concentrate. There was no standard food menu for franchises until 1978. By 1960 the company had 2,000 stores.

In 1989 A&W made an agreement with Minnesota-based chain Carousel Snack Bars to convert that chain's 200 locations (mostly kiosks in shopping malls) to "A&W Hot Dogs & More". Some A&W Hot Dogs & More locations are in operation today.

Many A&W locations that opened in the U.S. during the Yum! Brands ownership years (2002–2011) were co-branded with Yum!'s other chains—Long John Silver's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut or KFC.

As of December 2011 A&W was under new ownership and its world headquarters was moved back to Lexington, Kentucky. Since then, in the United States and Southeast Asia, A&W has been owned by a group of franchisees (as A Great American Brand).

References

Citations

General and cited references

  • A&W's root beer site
  • The History of Root Beer
  • Root Beer Reviews and info