Annie Green Springs and why nothing is ever new in the wine business

This 1970s brand foreshadowed wine coolers and hard seltzers – complete with crummy advertising

One of the things about the wine business that makes me crazy is that there is nothing new – just the same stuff repackaged in a prettier label.

Case in point: This 1974 radio ad for a brand called Annie Green Springs, which was apparently a cross between Boone’s Farm and Thunderbird — aimed at both college students and urban audiences, neither of whom wanted to drink “real” wine. So fizzy, slightly sweet, and marketing-style fruity. How do Apricot Splash, Berry Frost, and Plum Hollow sound?

In other words, hard seltzer.

The ad, save for a few pictures that offer a sort of nostalgic pleasure for anyone who remembers those times (“Groovy!”), is terrible – corny and very dated, and the jingle is so awkward that Churro, the blog’s associate editor, could probably have written a better one.

Annie Green Springs, despite an attempt to revive the brand a couple of years ago, apparently no longer exists. Small favors, anyway.

Video: What’s the Story via YouTube

More about wine advertising:
• TV wine ads: Black Box targets younger consumers – but still doesn’t get it right
• The history of wine advertising and reaching younger consumers
• Radio wine ad: Stiller & Meara for Blue Nun