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November 2, 2007 11:50 AM

TaB history, photo galleries, and Generation TaB: The Motion Picture.

Pepsi Coca Cola Pink, I guess. But I still love the look of that logo.

posted by dersins (26 comments total)

I mean, seriously-- what's not to love about this?
posted by dersins at 11:51 AM on November 2, 2007

Tab, uh, blue!
posted by cortex at 11:51 AM on November 2, 2007

What, the moderators around here don't read the [more inside]?
posted by dersins at 11:53 AM on November 2, 2007

Well, like, maybe if weren't so small, man.

Dammit.
posted by cortex at 12:00 PM on November 2, 2007

I really like Tab. haters be damned. Has a nice caffeine kick too. The best diet soda I have tried is the new Pepsi Max, which has extra caffeine and ginseng. It doesn't taste "diet" to me at all.
posted by vronsky at 12:03 PM on November 2, 2007

When I'm not making fun of the Pope or Christ, I like to drink TaB. *growls*
posted by sleepy pete at 12:08 PM on November 2, 2007

TaB!
TaB Cola, what a beautiful drink
TaB, one calorie; water, zero!
TaB!
You're beautiful to me
Great cola taste, just one calorie

(Note: I don't drink TaB. I don't drink any cola, for that matter; I just don't like it. And yet I've had that jingle stuck in my head for well on twenty years. I am a troubled man.)
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:13 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've had that jingle stuck in my head for well on twenty years

What, this one?
posted by dersins at 12:19 PM on November 2, 2007

They configured an IBM 1401 computer to print all four letter word combinations that had a vowel. This generated over 250,000 words; they also added names suggested by employees. Coca-Cola narrowed the list to 600 possibilities and checked each of these against existing trademarks. By the time of the final selection, there were less than two dozen choices left. TAB was the final choice.

The first product named via a game of Boggle.
posted by GuyZero at 12:26 PM on November 2, 2007

TaB - because he won't remember you if you're fat!
posted by ALongDecember at 12:31 PM on November 2, 2007

My mother has had one Tab every day since my earliest memories. She choses which grocery stores she shops at by if they carry it. There's usually only two six packs in the store, and I think she's the only one they stock it for.

I really don't understand it. It tastes like aspirin to me.
posted by Titania at 12:52 PM on November 2, 2007

Coffee bar manager: Are you gonna order something, kid?
Marty: Uh, yeah. Just give me a Tab.
Coffee bar manager: Tab? I can't give you a tab unless you order something!
Marty: All right, just give me a Pepsi Free.
Coffee bar manager: If you want a Pepsi, pal, you've gonna to pay for it!
Marty: Look, just give me something without any sugar in it, okay?
Coffee bar manager: (muttering) Something without any sugar...
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 12:55 PM on November 2, 2007

TaB - because he won't remember you if you're fat!

So in the second link, is the dude watching her from behind a bush?

"Tab: The taste that attracts stalkers"
posted by drezdn at 1:43 PM on November 2, 2007

There was an article in New York magazine several years ago about the enduring appeal of Tab. What was surprising was that it wasn't about LI housewives, but these Wall Street billionaires and captains of industry that lived on the stuff. They had every fridge in their (several) mansions and private planes stocked with Tab. And there was a movie called The Zero Effect with Bill Pullman where he played a super-genius detective and his fridge was packed with nothing but Tab.
posted by vronsky at 1:44 PM on November 2, 2007

My ex-boss revealed her nutter status to me over Tab. when they released the new Tab energy drink (which I admit, I like a lot, probably in part because of subconscious slavish adherence to the pink sassy retro demographic but also its faint pomegranatey flavor and milder than red bull buzz) she was outraged with a sort of We Won't Get Fooled Again How Dare They Traffic in Tragedy Cancer Cancer Cancer reaction.

I was like, dude, the 80s were hard on you. And then she flipped out that I called her dude.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:50 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yes, what is up with Tab as an 'energy drink'? By definition, those contain sugar as well as caffeine, no?

How can 6 oz of flavoured sugarless 'water' be an energy drink?

Mind you, to me Tab still is the nauseating 70's taste of ooey-gooey Saccherine.
posted by jrochest at 2:44 PM on November 2, 2007

Heh. When I was in NYC in the 80s I worked for Lintas (part of Interpublic, now Lowe), who had the Tab account. One of my bosses (I was a "word processor" -- when it still was a separate human job -- for the Cover Girl account) had been used for a print testimonial ad ("my friend Sheila ___ can't get enough Tab") before she came to work for the agency (thanks to the same friends who'd put her in the ad), and an oversize proof version hung on her office wall. She did very much have the Tab "look" -- fresh faced and skinny -- but wasn't quite the Tab drinker the ad made her out to be.

Thing was, it hadn't become a cult item then, but the ad really played up the addictive and unique qualities. I think they went that way after the introduction of Diet Coke, though.
posted by dhartung at 2:49 PM on November 2, 2007

My mother was addicted to Tab. She drank about 20 cans of it a day. I thought it was vile and disgusting. After about 10 years of daily Tabbing it, she developed some benign fibrous cysts in her breasts that her doctor wanted to express. Wherever he put the needle in, dark brown fluid came out. Of every cyst. Pure Tab. I think it was still carbonated.
posted by iconomy at 4:56 PM on November 2, 2007 [3 favorites]

I think it was still carbonated.

*begins scrubbing brain energetically*
posted by loquacious at 5:09 PM on November 2, 2007

Don't use bleach. Use Tab. It's really powerful.
posted by iconomy at 5:58 PM on November 2, 2007

Sarah Silverman had a whole TAB subplot thing on her show recently--it was great. (video link) : >

and i don't know how widespread it got, but a Mary Tyler Moore (cocktail) is rum and tab.
posted by amberglow at 6:30 PM on November 2, 2007

You beat me to it, amberglow. On one hand, the product placement was annoying. But the subplot was pretty hilarious.
posted by krinklyfig at 7:35 PM on November 2, 2007

TaB always reminds me of the stoner diabetic genius engineer fraternity brother of mine who mixed it with his milk every morning when I was in college (ca 1980 - 1984).

No, I'm NOT making that up.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:07 PM on November 2, 2007

SKIM milk.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:07 PM on November 2, 2007

As a little kid, I didn't comprehend diet vs. normal soda, and would sometimes choose a Tab. To me, just another cola. But, you know, it hat just 1 CRAZY calorie.
posted by Goofyy at 11:35 PM on November 2, 2007

Tab will always remind me of the Match Game. You'd see Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers surrounded by cans of Tab and Solo plastic cups filled with Tab spiked with god-knows-what. When I watched it as a kid, I didn't get why they were laughing all the time, but it seems so obvious now.
posted by jonp72 at 8:36 AM on November 3, 2007