Back in the day, no one really drank orange juice. It just wasn’t a thing.

But there was an abundance of oranges in California. The California Fruit Growers Exchange was overwhelmed with supply, but there was no demand. They had two choices: Cut down on supply, or make demand. And no one wants to cut down supply.

So to increase demand, they hired an advertising agency (duh) and rebranded as - Sunkist Growers, which is still around more than a 120 years later. Albert Lasker, the inspiration for Mad Men’s Don Draper, thought of a brilliant idea:

On an average, a person would consume half an orange in one sitting, but if they had a glass of orange juice instead, they’d consume at least two to three oranges in one go.

Now if you’ve ever made freshly squeezed orange juice, you know it’s a task. Back then, there were no blenders or cold press juicers. All the hard work had to be done manually. So they gave customers a juice extractor to make it easier for them.

They even advertised it in their ‘Drink An Orange’ campaign. Yes, back then people used to just eat' their oranges, and ‘drink an orange’ was a brand new thing.

The copy convinced Americans that drinking a glass of orange juice was the best way to start their day and would significantly improve their health. As expected, orange consumption per serving more than doubled.

Over the years, the same company went on and on about the associated health benefits of oranges in a plethora of ads.

But wait, where does breakfast come in right?

The CFGE also produced lemons. To make both fruit campaigns work in sync, orange juice was positioned as the beverage of the morning while lemonade was positioned as the beverage of the afternoon.

And that’s how orange juice became embedded in the modern world and is a breakfast staple today thanks to some remarkable beverage propaganda from an advertising agency.