bottlebugs
Well-Known Member
In my search for more details on the "Hit" bottle history I struck upon something
odd the other day. A popular cola in Georgia was Big Hit. It predates Hit and Kik
and their bottlers in Montreal by almost ten years. It was a belly-wash for kids.
Check this out...It prominently featured a baseball player. Of course we all know where
Coca-Cola was headquartered...Georgia.
It appeared to be bought out by Coca-Cola in the 1930s and was packaged in large
bottles to give credence to the name "Big" Hit. ACL bottles followed in the 1940s.
Now doesn't that look familiar?! Did America Dry copy the same bottle and use it just in Canada?
To compete with Pepsi=Cola in Canada (1934) a new cola was in produced by America Dry in 1936. Kik. Pepsi=Cola, and America Dry (Kik Kola) were all headquartered in New York City!
It featured another oddity. An American style football player from the 1920s kicking a
soccer ball? When Kik took off in the USA they quickly changed the Canadian slogan
and ball to the familiar football. There's Quality in Kik vs. Life in Kik.
So around the same time that Kik was getting traction in Quebec (1938), Orange Freeze
releases a new product called Hit. Strangely, it only opens plants in St. Boniface, Manitoba where Coke, Kik, and Pepsi were surprisingly absent. When Coke and Pepsi are
introduced to Manitoba, Hit shutters its operations. (1940)
So after the acquisition of Kik by Orange Crush International (HQ'd in TO) Kik became Canada's Own Cola, even though apparently it wasn't.
BTW...America Dry Ginger Ale and Canada Dry Ginger Ale were headquartered in NYC as well.
Big Hit was renamed as Big Giant the same year the New York Giants moved to San Francisco after 60+ years in the Big City. The year was 1958. However, it still pictured a baseball player.
Food for thought?
odd the other day. A popular cola in Georgia was Big Hit. It predates Hit and Kik
and their bottlers in Montreal by almost ten years. It was a belly-wash for kids.
Check this out...It prominently featured a baseball player. Of course we all know where
Coca-Cola was headquartered...Georgia.
It appeared to be bought out by Coca-Cola in the 1930s and was packaged in large
bottles to give credence to the name "Big" Hit. ACL bottles followed in the 1940s.
Now doesn't that look familiar?! Did America Dry copy the same bottle and use it just in Canada?
To compete with Pepsi=Cola in Canada (1934) a new cola was in produced by America Dry in 1936. Kik. Pepsi=Cola, and America Dry (Kik Kola) were all headquartered in New York City!
It featured another oddity. An American style football player from the 1920s kicking a
soccer ball? When Kik took off in the USA they quickly changed the Canadian slogan
and ball to the familiar football. There's Quality in Kik vs. Life in Kik.
So around the same time that Kik was getting traction in Quebec (1938), Orange Freeze
releases a new product called Hit. Strangely, it only opens plants in St. Boniface, Manitoba where Coke, Kik, and Pepsi were surprisingly absent. When Coke and Pepsi are
introduced to Manitoba, Hit shutters its operations. (1940)
So after the acquisition of Kik by Orange Crush International (HQ'd in TO) Kik became Canada's Own Cola, even though apparently it wasn't.
BTW...America Dry Ginger Ale and Canada Dry Ginger Ale were headquartered in NYC as well.
Big Hit was renamed as Big Giant the same year the New York Giants moved to San Francisco after 60+ years in the Big City. The year was 1958. However, it still pictured a baseball player.
Food for thought?
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