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Advertisements for Tango were originally largely unremarkable (apart from some humorous ads), but since the 1990s they have become well known for their distinctively bizarre and often postmodern tone. The advertisements are arguably now more talked-about than the product itself, and manufacturer Britvic's own Tango brand page states that "Today Tango is probably most famous for its successful and innovative marketing campaigns".
The first "ironic" campaign introduced the now-common catchphrase "You know when you've been Tango'd", produced by advertising agency HHCL. The campaign began in 1991 with an ad, Orange Man featuring a man being slapped around the face by a portly man painted orange (Peter Geeves) immediately after drinking Tango. It received widespread condemnation after a craze for "Tangoing" people swept the nation's playgrounds, and there were reports of children receiving serious injuries or even being deafened by being slapped on the ears. It has also been suggested that young children were too weak to cause such damage and that it was in fact students who had injured themselves. Whatever the truth, Tango voluntarily replaced the "slapping" advert with an almost-identical new version where the orange-clad person kisses the man instead of hitting him. However, the original version was named the 3rd best television commercial of all time in a 2000 poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4. Most subsequent Tango advertisements have avoided showing violence, except for an ad in 2004 which was again banned because of violence, and the 1997 'Vote Orange Now' advert, where the orange clad man makes another appearance (although probably played by another person), slapping the main man in the advert several times just before the advert finishes. This latter advert was featured in the first advert-break on Channel 5. In 1998, a Tango advert that featured James Corden being bullied for not drinking Tango was banned because it encouraged the bullying of overweight children.
Other advertisements in the campaign featured:
- a man shouting "Oranges" into a woman's ear whilst she is waiting for a train
- a man dressed up like Napoleon wearing an orange glove, and rubbing it into another man's face
- an orange-painted man wearing a kilt with no legs and a blue afro hairstyle (known as the "Flying Scotsman") who is flying to find his missing foot.
Further slogans used include "You need it because you're weak" (for Diet Tango) and "Feed the Tango Inside".
A major revamp for the drink in 1996 included an "Apple Tango Calendar" given free with the Daily Star.
After various other ads, like the "We Drink Tango Don't You Know" ads of 1998-1999 and "Feed The Tango Inside!" ad of 2001, Tango brought back their famous "You Know When You've Been Tango'd" slogan in a brand new set of adverts, which would feature scientists performing unnecessary stunts. These adverts were used for Tango Orange and Tango Apple. The adverts lasted from 2002 to 2005.
In 2003, to advertise Tango Apple was a "Big drench tour", a roadshow of a 30 ft-tall apple-shaped installation filled with water. Players must stand underneath and take part in a game of 'drench roulette' to win prizes.
In 2008, Tango launched a campaign called 'Save Tango', due to a drop of sales in the drink.
In 2009, Tango turned the can designs upside-down following a "dare" from social networking site bragster in a drive to increase sales.
Tango also sponsored the television show The Word in 1994 and the Underage Festival in 2010.
A 2009 UK billboard campaign extolled the "weird and wonderful" side effects of drinking too much "Tango with added Tango Orange" (such as "Too much Tango made me suck a bull's udder"). The British press pointed out that the initials of "Tango With Added Tango" spelled the insult "twat" when read vertically, and this was later revealed to be intentional.
One of their television advertisements on TV, entitled Pipes, was banned in November 2004 in fear of imitation and harm.
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