Tropicana Wants You to 'Give Life Some Juice' in New Campaign

Tropicana just launched a brand platform that marks its most significant creative shift in years.

"Give Life Some Juice," developed in partnership with creative agency FIG, leads with the feeling of the natural lift that the word "juice" carries in daily life.

With more than 75 years in the category, Tropicana has strong equity in orange juice, but the brand is now managing a full portfolio of flavors.

The campaign pulls this range under one idea, aimed at younger drinkers who want more from a beverage than morning orange juice.

The challenge was making the platform feel fresh in an industry that tends to rely on predictable visual codes.

FIG CEO and Creative Chair Mark Figliulo told DesignRush that the formula starts with finding "the emotional white space the category ignores."

"[W]e uncovered that consumers drink juice for the feeling of uplift it gives them, yet the entire category focuses on functional messaging.

We knew we needed to double down on emotional storytelling to break through. From there, the campaign was right in front of us," he shared.

"We needed to put Tropicana back in the tropics, craft the world with meticulous care, and tell charming stories of how it feels to drink Tropicana juices."

Tropicana's new visual identity draws on world-building, the practice of giving a brand its own consistent universe of characters, settings, and rules.

And Figliulo sees it as a response to a fractured media industry where "a distinctive brand world" will set Tropicana apart.

"At FIG, we've found that the most powerful brand worlds are built on a foundation of emotional truth," he explained.

"An ownable benefit that drives meaningfulness [should be] paired with an ownable world that drives memorability."

Most juice brands compete on function, the vitamins, the freshness, and the morning routine.

Tropicana is claiming the uplifting feeling of drinking juice as its own territory, and this kind of brand-building is far harder for a rival to replicate.

A Sloth, a Rainforest, and a Lot of CGI

The campaign's hero spot, "Anthem," runs 60 seconds and opens on a sloth hanging from an orange tree, reaching for a bottle of Tropicana 100% Orange Juice.

Once he takes a sip, the environment around him comes alive.

He moves through the rainforest with energy and confidence, surrounded by other animals, all set to "UP!" by Forrest Frank and Connor Price.

Directors Dorian & Daniel of Reset led the film, with animation studio Untold building the CGI world.

Together, they created a hyperrealistic universe designed to show fruit in a way live action couldn't achieve.

The result is a set of visuals distinctive enough to carry the brand across an entire suite of assets.

The suite includes "Soar," "Swarm," "Jump," "Leap," and "Hanging," alongside social, audio, and out-of-home placements.

The full campaign rolls out in shorter cuts across connected TV, digital video, and social platforms, including Spotify, Meta, and TikTok.

Tropicana's Portfolio Play

A masterbrand platform succeeds when the central idea outgrows any single product.

Tropicana and FIG built "Give Life Some Juice" around a feeling precisely because a feeling scales across every flavor.

And their creative choices show how they pulled it off.

Here's what brand and creative teams can take from Tropicana's approach with FIG:

• Anchor the platform in cultural language. Find a word your audience already uses, then build the brand around its everyday meaning.
• Build a proprietary visual world. A signature craft like hyperrealistic CGI gives a brand a look rivals can't clone.
• Cast characters that carry emotion. Pick characters that carry a full emotional range, the way Tropicana's animals convey confidence, playfulness, and vitality.

Done well, a masterbrand platform refreshes a brand identity for a new generation while protecting the equity already built with loyal customers.

Our Take: Does Feeling Beat Functionality?

Tropicana is making a deliberate choice to compete on emotion.

In the juice industry, freshness, pulp, and vitamin C have historically done the work.

But Tropicana isn't here to do what everyone else is already doing, so it decided to create a tropical world that gives the brand visual territory to own.

The sloth spot is memorable and, if it sticks enough, the mammal could even become a new mascot for the brand.

However, this will depend purely on whether this idea of "juice" will stay on people's minds after the campaign window.

Explore DesignRush’s selection of the top brand strategy agencies to turn existing brand equity into something that still lands.