Purely because of its copy, I’ve liked the Innocent brand ever since I bought my first Innocent Smoothie a long time ago. Then I started working for a true Innocent fan who regularly bought smoothies for the whole team, highlighting the reasons why he loved the brand; yes, he even brought in A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some Things We’ve Learned, which, by the way, is just another one of many reasons why this simple food brand seems to always go that little bit further.
As for their copy brilliance, they call their offices Fruit Towers and their helpline the banana phone, and after establishing that the smoothie is “gently pasteurised, just like milk” they encourage you to “shake it up baby”. Finally, in the list of ingredients, which is full or real, healthy fruit, they note that the smoothie includes “1/3 of a squeezed orange, 0 armbands… or any other inflatables in the pool whatsoever”. If any other brand tried it, it would be corny, but for Innocent it works.
Innocent is extremely tongue-in-cheek without ever really becoming annoying. Innocent writes about how good it is (the whole ‘no additives’ schpiel) just like all other juice and smoothie brands, but the difference is that Innocent is telling the truth. It’s a simple, no-bullshit approach marketing, completely in line with the idea of bringing people just what they want; really, there are no additives – just fruit.
And that, combined with passion that is seemingly bursting out of every bottle and cow van as well as the website, makes Innocent a brand to admire. Pure no-bullshit goodness with a sense of humour, and designed well. Simple. Or, if you like, innocent.
