Odd News Flashback: Anything and Whatever Soft Drinks From Singapore

A pair of soft drinks in Singapore were named Anything and Whatever which did not identify the contents, so the consumers would not know which flavor they had until drinking it.

Anything and Whatever

The canned drinks were carbonated (Anything) or non-carbonated (Whatever) and marketed by Out of the Box Pte Ltd in Singapore. Each brand came in six different flavors, but the cans were purposely not labeled, so the consumer would not know which flavor they were holding until opening the can and tasting it.

Anything came in cola, cola with lemon, apple, fizz up, cloudy lemon, and root beer.

Whatever was available in ice lemon tea, peach tea, jasmine green tea, white grape tea, apple tea, and chrysanthemum tea.

Some online users have suggested that the savvy consumers could ascertain the contents of the can by knowing and looking for small differences among the can labels.

History

A tagline for the soda stated, “Any taste for any thirst, a surprise in every can!” The company’s managing director, Johnson Tan, described the idea behind the soda:

“The concept was developed through the experience my friends and I kept having whenever we were out at a gathering, a coffee shop, or even at home. People kept telling us they just wanted “anything” or “whatever” when we asked them what they wanted to drink. My friends and I discussed this and found the concept really interesting. So with the support of my friends, I decided that “anything” and “whatever” would be a great idea for a unique Singapore beverage.”

Bus Stop Displays

A “teaser” campaign in May 2007 placed “whacky, humorous and prominent displays” at bus stops. These displays used real cans, but were withdrawn because vandals tampered with the displays which collected rain water and became a health hazard due to concerns of dengue. A press release at that time read:

But to our greatest regret, we realized that the empty cans (with it flaps closed) at almost 450 bus stops had been tampered with, some even torn down with the flaps opened.

This has caused much concern by some members of the public who felt that the opened cans posed possible dengue hazards, collecting rain water.

As such, in the interest of the public, the management of Out of the Box Pte Ltd has made an immediate decision today, working closely with Clear Channel to dismantle the canned drinks display at all 450 bus stops. The display took about twelve team members, working twenty hours per day over a span of three days to setup and was supposed to run for a month.

“I think we have achieved our objectives of creating mass awareness and attention. It’s a pity that we have to remove the display for social responsibility and environmental concerns. Even though we will incur additional costs, we feel that as this is a public concern, we will do anything and whatever to address it immediately,” says Mr Johnson Tan, Managing Director of Out of the Box Pte Ltd, that markets “Anything” & “Whatever” beverages.

The Anything and Whatever soft drinks were discontinued in 2010, and the official website anything.com.sg apparently went offline sometime in 2012.

The story of Anything and Whatever received renewed interested in November 2014 when it was posted on Reddit.