When Swansea Got Tango'd 🍊

Good morning, Swansea!

Back in the mid-2000s, one of the most famous TV adverts of the era was quietly spoofed on a residential street in the city - not as a throwaway gag, but as a full-scale production involving flying fruit, smashed windows, and a furious local residents’ association.

This week, grab a cuppa and learn about the time when Swansea got Tango’d!

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew

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In 2005, Sony released an advert for its Bravia LCD televisions that quickly became one of the mot memorable of the year. It showed tens of thousands of brightly coloured balls bouncing down a steep street in San Francisco, filmed in slow-motion, and without a single word of dialogue.

Its soundtrack was Heartbeats by José González - a quiet, repetitive, and oddly hypnotic tune that, combined with the slow-motion footage and no product shot until the very end (along with a “Colour like no other” tagline), made the whole thing feel more like a short art film than a TV advert.

About a year later, something very similar started circulating online with the same setup: a steep street, a quiet opening, the same music, and the same pacing.

But this time, instead of bouncing balls, it was fruit - more than 40 crates of it. Oranges, apples, lemons, watermelons - all tumbling downhill in almost the same style, except the location wasn't a sunny San Francisco, but Cambridge Street in Uplands, Swansea, filmed in February under grey British skies.

This particular film was made by Tango to promote their new clear drink, and at first glance it seemed like a straight copy. Look closer, and things weren’t quite as perfect as the original - a watermelon smashing through a window, fruit bursting against cars, flowerpots getting knocked over - even a toad emerging from a drainpipe.

It ended with the tagline "Refreshment like no other," and anyone who'd seen the Sony ad knew exactly what was up.

Unusually for the time, the campaign for Tango’s advert was designed to be viewed and shared online, rather than heading straight to TV.

In fact, the brand went all out - centering the campaign around a website for the fictitious "Swansea North Residents Association," documenting what supposedly happened when a film crew dumped "several tonnes of fruit" onto the street just to see how it looked bouncing downhill - and how angry the group’s members were about it all - calling on people to “JOIN OUR PROTEST AGAINST THE FRUIT FLINGERS”.

“Aled Edwards”, a taxi driver, said his car was "covered in sticky pulp" and made him late for work. "What kind of world do we live in where fresh fruit is needlessly lobbed down streets like this?"

“Margaret Jones” saw "a fight between a rat and a pigeon over a Granny Smith at the bottom of Cambridge Street."

“Sarah Evans” had a watermelon come through her window, followed by lemons. Broken figurines. A large pink stain on the carpet. If she'd wanted "several pounds of fruit" in her home, she said, she "would have gone to the market."

“Huw Edwards” (not that one) was upset about his window boxes. "Best part of twenty quid that lot cost me. I'll be consulting my lawyers."

The tone was pitch-perfect local outrage. Photos, mock interviews, mobile phone footage, notices about residents' meetings. Visitors were told to share the video via a form on the site, and warned their town could be next.

“If we make sure enough people complain about what happened in Swansea North, those responsible will think twice before soiling British streets with fruit pulp again.” reads the complaint form page, encouraging visitors to share the campaign with their friends.

At first, it read like any other neighbourhood complaint. Only gradually did it tip into absurdity — just enough to make you realise what you were actually looking at.

By then, the video was already on its way around the country. According to campaign write-ups at the time, the fake residents’ website received close to 200,000 visits within its first day online, spreading almost entirely through email forwards and message boards.

Once the clip had circulated widely online, it later appeared on television, where the joke landed instantly for anyone who recognised the original Sony campaign. Released at a moment when videos were still shared by email and forums rather than feeds, the stunt relied on being believable just long enough to travel.

Tango’s ad went on to win a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2006, alongside further industry awards, cementing it as one of the standout UK advertising campaigns of the early internet era.

And despite the outrage staged online, the film crew later confirmed the fruit was cleared away and donated to a local animal sanctuary once filming wrapped.

For a brief moment in 2006, a quiet residential street in Swansea stood in for one of the most recognisable adverts of its era - and turned it on its head.

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.

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