A new alcoholic version of the classic Australian soft drink Solo has renewed hopes of a return to screens of the legendary Solo Man.
Solo was launched by Taraxin in 1968, with Sydney PE teacher Michael Ace portraying the very first Solo Man in the 1970s and ’80s.
The Solo Man quickly became an Aussie legend thanks to his fearless ability to row through rapids, wrestle a wild brumby and kayak off a cliff.
The Solo Man was everything it meant to be a man in the 1980s
A new Hard Solo promises to be light on fizz so you can slam it down fast
On Saturday, Carlton and United told Daily Mail Australia it was bringing Solo back to the adult audience it always craved with a fully alcoholic version of the drink.
It will be sold in four, 10 and 24-packs of 375mL cans with an alcohol content of 4.5 per cent.
‘He’s a legend of Australian advertising,’ ‘Mark’ from Melbourne’s western suburbs told Daily Mail Australia.
‘He was part of a wave of fair-haired Aussie he-men in a golden era that included the likes of Alby Mangels and Leo Wanker.
‘He was canoeing down mountains and doing all this dangerous stuff and at the end he would crack a Solo.’
Portrayed as a macho, traditionally masculine beast, the Solo Man quickly went out of fashion in more politically correct times.
The launch of Hard Solo comes as American brewer Budweiser continues to try and win back male drinkers on the back of its Bud Light advertising disaster.
Three months after Bud Light was featured in a social media promotion by a transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, the company shows no signs of winning back its spot at the top of the US beer charts.
You had to keep in shape to be a Solo Man, take the lead and let the others follow
The Solo Man launches himself off a cliff in a kayak in a 1990 advertisement
Solo had been unashamedly targetted at men, with its once famous slogan declaring: ‘Solo lemon: a man’s drink.’
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WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A RETURN OF THE SOLO MAN
Initial publicity shots of the new Hard Solo feature a well-manicured, hipster-looking vegan-like character covered in the kind of tattoos popular in the Abbottsford area where the brewer responsible for the alcoholic brew is located.
‘He looks more like Kombucha man,’ Mark said.
However, sources have told Daily Mail Australia the new drink is targeted at people aged in their 30s and 40s, fuelling hope that we may yet see the rise of the Hard Solo man.
So successful was the original Solo man advertising campaign, it saw the character ripped off by soup maker Campbell’s, which ran similar ads featuring the ‘Fully Loaded Man’.
With ‘balls of meat’ the Fully Loaded Man appeared in ads sailing down mountains before crushing a can of soup in his hand.
CUB spokesman Hayden Turner said the new Hard Solo had a taste reminiscent of the classic Solo but with a bitter finish provided by the alcohol.
The new Solo Man could be mistaken for the ‘Kombucha Man’, one Solo man fan claimed
The Solo Man enjoys a thirst crusher after working up a sweat doing manly things
In developing the new drink, the brewer said it was determined to ensure it was clearly marked as an alcoholic drink to avoid it getting into the hands of kids.
‘When developing Hard Solo we were only prepared to proceed if the can and branding looked very different to the regular Solo,’ Mr Turner said.
‘We’ve achieved that – Hard Solo, with its distinct black can, looks very different to regular Solo. We’ve also used very prominent alcohol markings on the front of the can so that it cannot be confused with Solo and is clearly for adult consumers only.’
While Australians are begging for a return of the Solo Man, Mr Turner said the company had no immediate plans to bring the legendary man back to screens.
‘There will be no traditional out-of-home advertising, TV, or radio campaigns to promote Hard Solo,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
However fans of the Solo Man have already indicated they plan to run a campaign to bring the legend back.
Hard Solo will be available in bottle shops nationwide later this month, with a price of about $24 for a four-pack.
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