A History of Babycham

 Babycham, a sparkling icon of the 1960s and ‘70s, first appeared on the national scene in 1953. The product was manufactured by the old-established Somerset brewery firm Showerings Ltd of Shepton Mallet. Francis Showering, a trained chemist, devised a sterile filtration process which improved the shelf quality of perry and introduced the new clear sparkling drink, originally called ‘Champagne de la Poire’, at agricultural shows from the late 1940s where it won many prizes and became known as ‘Baby Champ’. The Babycham trademark was registered in 1950 and the product was initially launched on a small scale in the Bristol area.

By the early 1950s the Showerings firm had resolved that their locally popular Babycham beverage deserved to be more widely known and therefore hired the Masius & Fergusson agency to engineer a national launch and advertising campaign. Advertiser’s Weekly, the industry trade journal, reported that a test campaign for Babycham was launched in London evening newspapers in the autumn of 1953 with two sizes of press ads being booked. The star of the smaller ads was a charming baby chamois character who sported an outsize ribbon bow round its neck.

The ads featured slogans such as ‘I made my début in London’ and ‘My picture was in all the papers’ together with the selling line of ‘Only 59,088,038 Babycham Ads to Christmas!’ (Advertiser’s Weekly, 5 November 1953). The larger space gave details of the forthcoming national advertising campaign and included a form for publicans who wanted sales aids, trade prices and the name of their nearest supplier. As a result of the pilot scheme orders poured in and sales in the London area were multiplied five times in just four weeks. The test results were so encouraging that it was decided to bring forward the national campaign in time to catch the all-important festive trade. During the following year’s pre-Christmas period of 1954 ‘Showerings found that it was unable to meet demand for Babycham…Rather than compromise on product quality, which could have increased supply, strict rationing of Babycham was introduced’ (Let’s Look Again: A history of branded Britain).

Babycham was originally marketed as a ‘genuine champagne perry’ and made its debut on the new medium of commercial TV in the autumn of 1955. It was the first alcoholic drink to be specifically aimed at the then largely untapped female audience who were increasingly going out to socialise and wanted something appetising, affordable and stylish to drink but which was also ‘respectable’. As an author on the history of alcohol advertising has noted the light, sparkling pear beverage was marketed as ‘a short, not-too-alcoholic drink for women who did not drink beer but could not afford whisky and other spirits’ (P. Dade, Drink Talking: 100 years of Alcohol Advertising). The trademark Babycham ‘baby’ 4 liquid ounce green glass bottles perfectly filled a champagne glass and it was popularly seen as a light, delicate drink acceptable for women to order in pubs. The product’s cartoon chamois mascot came to symbolise the core brand values of ‘fun, sparkle, femininity and sociability’ in the public consciousness.

The very substantial sum of around £300,000 was spent on the promotion of Babycham between 1953 and 1956 (source: Let’s Look Again) and the brand was effectively built by advertising. A wide range of promotional items were commissioned to support Babycham marketing operations including plastic mascots (with detachable big blue bows) for bar display and the iconic ‘baby’ champagne branded saucer glasses which became popular collectibles. In 1968 it was reported in the advertising industry press that a new campaign for Babycham by the Masius Wynne-Williams agency was to be launched in April-May across press, cinema, TV and radio with the advertising theme being the fantasy drama world of ‘Babychamland’ – the home of the Babycham (Advertiser’s Weekly, 12 April 1968). The 1960s also saw the launch of the nationwide ‘Babycham Babe’ beauty competition.

The brand’s history saw a sales peak in 1959, stable business through the 1960s to early ‘70s and then a decline from 1975 as the competition increased. A ‘return to core values’ strategy and the ‘Nothing sparkles like a Babycham’ advertising campaign helped to stabilise and then build business between 1982-1984 but over the next year the volume increases levelled off.  Saatchi & Saatchi, Babycham’s agency during this period, undertook further research to dig deeper into how consumers, particularly younger women, felt about the product. This revealed that the Babycham brand had a real problem with a decidedly old-fashioned image and very particular associations with traditional, ‘special’ occasions such as Christmas. As an IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards study from 1988 explained a new advertising theme (‘Hey, Babycham’) was therefore devised to represent the brand in a more contemporary and relevant way for younger women and to also challenge perceptions that Babycham was only suitable for nostalgic, ‘once in a blue moon’ type occasions (whilst still maintaining the loyalty of the existing fanbase). The new campaign was initially launched in the summer of 1986 to help confront views that the drink was mainly appropriate for the festive season although there was a further ‘traditional’ burst of advertising activity at Christmas. The memorable ‘Trendy Joint’ TV commercial from this campaign showed a couple in 1950s style clothing entering a modern video bar where the woman orders a Babycham in cut glass tones (‘I’d love a Babycham’). There is a stunned silence and time momentarily stands still until a cool patron in sunglasses declares ‘Hey, I’d love a Babycham’ and then the party really starts swinging, with everyone now ordering the bubbly pear drink. In the final pack shot the feisty little Babycham mascot struts on screen wearing sunglasses and a cheeky expression.

Babycham ‘Trendy Joint’ TV commercial pack shot – HAT2/1/66/40

This tongue-in-cheek approach was credited with re-energising the brand for the modern female drinks market and the public effect of the new campaign saw The Telegraph include the product in its ‘What’s in’ survey of 1987.

The Showerings firm merged with Allied Breweries in 1968 and the Allied cider business was subject to a management buyout by the Gaymer Group in 1992. The latter was then acquired by the drinks wholesaler Matthew Clark in 1994 who in turn were acquired by Constellation Brands four years later. The Babycham brand, now owned by Accolade Wines, celebrated its 60^th anniversary in 2013 and by capitalising on its vintage/retro credentials enjoyed something of a resurgence during this period. Babycham is still available today, marketed as the ‘happiest drink in the world’ and the original party drink ‘that’s brought a touch of fun and sparkle to people’s lives since 1953’ (Tesco Groceries website, 2021).

HAT9/4/1: ‘Diamond Sparkle…Golden Glow…Babycham’

If you’d like to discover or re-visit some classic Babycham ads from the 1950s-1990s then head over to our catalogue where 1000s of commercials from the birth of TV advertising in 1955 to the present day, along with historical print ads, can be viewed for free.

Eve Read

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