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Canada Dry
Product type	Soft drink
Owner	Keurig Dr Pepper
Country	Canada
Introduced	1904; 120 years ago
Markets	Canada, United States, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Europe, Japan,Turkey, Middle East, Africa
Previous owners	Cadbury; (1986–2008); Canada Dry Ginger Ale Inc.; (1923–1986); John J. McLaughlin family; (1904–1923)
Website	www.canadadry.com canadadry.ca

Canada Dry is a Canadian-American brand of soft drinks^[2] founded in Toronto, Ontario, in 1904, and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple (now Keurig Dr Pepper).^[3] For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though the company also manufactures a number of other soft drinks and mixers. Although it (as the brand name suggests) originated in Canada, Canada Dry is now produced in many countries such as the United States, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Turkey and in a number of countries of Europe and the Middle East.

Etymology

The "Dry" in the brand's name refers to not being sweet, as in a dry wine. When John J. McLaughlin originally made his new soft drink, "Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale", it was far less sweet than other ginger ales then available; as a result, he labelled it "dry".^[4]

History

In 1890, Canadian pharmacist and chemist John J. McLaughlin of Enniskillen, Ontario, after working in a soda factory in Brooklyn, New York,^[5] opened a carbonated water plant in Toronto.^[1] McLaughlin was the eldest son of Robert McLaughlin, founder of McLaughlin Carriage and McLaughlin Motor Car.^[6] In 1904, McLaughlin created "Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale". Three years later, the drink was appointed to the Viceregal Household of the Governor General of Canada and the label featuring a beaver atop a map of Canada was replaced with the present crown and shield label.^[7]

When McLaughlin began shipping his product to New York, it became so popular that he opened a plant in Manhattan shortly thereafter. After McLaughlin's death in 1914, the company was run briefly by his brother, Samuel McLaughlin. P. D. Saylor and Associates bought the business from the McLaughlin family in 1923 and formed Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., a public company.^[1]

Canada Dry's popularity as a mixer began during Prohibition, when its flavor helped mask the taste of homemade liquor.^[8] In the 1930s, Canada Dry expanded worldwide. From the 1950s onward, the company introduced a larger number of products.

Norton Simon took an interest in the company in 1964, and it merged with Simon's other holdings, the McCall Corporation and Hunt Foods, to form Norton Simon Inc. Dr Pepper bought Canada Dry from Norton Simon in 1982.^[9]^[10] In 1984, Dr Pepper was acquired by Forstmann Little & Company, and Canada Dry was sold to R. J. Reynolds' Del Monte Foods unit to pay off acquisition debt.^[11] RJR Nabisco sold its soft drink business to Cadbury Schweppes in 1986. Today, Canada Dry is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which was spun off from Cadbury Schweppes in 2008.^[1]^[12]

'Made from Real Ginger' lawsuits

In 2019, Canada Dry faced false advertising lawsuits from a few consumers who requested class action status.^[13] Although the ingredients included a natural flavour extract made from ginger root,^[14] the plaintiffs said the drink did not have enough ginger flavor for people to be able to taste it, and that they thought the advertising slogan indicated that the drink was "made by chopping or powdering the root of the ginger plant", instead of using a small amount of liquid extracted from a ginger root.^[13] To settle this lawsuit, the company decided to stop making this claim in the US and to offer between US$5.20 and $40 to affected US consumers.^[13]^[15]

In early 2019, a class-action lawsuit was requested in Canada,^[16] where the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations specify that ingredients in food may be described as "real" if that ingredient "is present in the food, regardless of what form (e.g., frozen, powdered, ground, concentrated, etc.)".^[14] In a settlement, Canada Dry Mott's Inc. agreed to pay $200,000, inclusive of all expenses and fees, plus disbursements of $18,607.61, but it did not require the defendant to change its product labelling or advertising for products marketed in Canada. The settlement amount was to be distributed to the class members by way of cy-près donation to the Law Foundation of British Columbia, while two lead plaintiffs, Victor Cardoso and Lionel Ravvin, received $1,500 each.^[17]^[18]

The subjectivity of how much ginger is necessary before a product can be fairly described as being "made from real ginger" prompted one author to quip that "The truth is in the lie of the beholder".^[14]

Marketing

Nylon Studios produced the song used in the Rabbit's "Jack's Farm" commercial featuring Canada Dry Ginger Ale.^[19] A Cantonese version of the ad was also produced.