• by Danielle Oster , May 6, 2024

As the summer wedding season approaches, engaged couples planning to tie the knot may not have questions of juice pulp preferences on their mind. But maybe they should.

Tropicana, the Florida-based juice and fruit-based beverage company, rolled out a “Pulp Prenups” campaign last week, weighing into the conversation around pulp vs. no pulp, with the tongue-in-cheek (pulp-in-cheek?) suggestion of a premarital agreement on household pulp practices. Tropicana wants to weigh in on whether they’re “#TeamPulp,” “#TeamSomePulp,” or “#TeamNoPulp.”

The campaign centers around a “Pulp Prenup” promotional sweepstakes running through the end of the month, where consumers can submit their marital pulp commitments for a chance to win “a lifetime supply of Tropicana Pure Premium with the pulp content of your choosing,” as well as money toward their honeymoon.

Tropicana is not limiting the giveaway to engaged couples, though. Rather, it’s inviting all couples to submit their pulp commitments with their partners for a chance to win, with the latter part of the prize presumably going toward that second honeymoon.

”Pulp Prenup” was timed around National Orange Juice Day on May 4, as well as the lead-up to the summer wedding season. In a statement, Tropicana Brand Groups North America CEO Monica McGurk said that since the brand’s founding in 1954, “people have loved to debate their pulp preferences,” adding, “‘Pulp Prenup’ is our brand's lighthearted way to lean into this ongoing cultural conversation while celebrating the debate, and the fact that Tropicana Pure Premium is available in a variety of pulp selections.”

The approach of finding a lighthearted way to leverage cultural conversations was also on display in the brand’s packaging design stunt back in January removing the letters “AI” from the brand name to showcase how there’s nothing artificial in its product.

While the concept of a pulp-based prenup may not be serious, the brand claims it derives form a real insight about the divisiveness of pulp preferences.

According to a release announcing the campaign, a recent survey of 2,082 U.S. adults conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Tropicana found that over half (52%) of respondents reported having a “strong” preference for pulp or no pulp in their orange juice. Nearly one in five (19%) consumers said they would not consider a romantic relationship with someone if they had different pulp preferences, and 26% said it was important to discuss household pulp practices with a partner before getting married.

There’s even a small, but not insignificant contingent of consumers who are so pulp preference passionate that they claim aligning on the issue is more important than such other prenuptial conversations as agreeing on how to manage finances (17%), perspective on having children (15%), shared political (15%) and religious (14%) beliefs.

The “Pulp Prenup” push from Tropicana takes the occasion of summer wedding season, National Orange Juice Day (May 4) and the contentious pulp debate, to highlight the brand’s range of varieties for all pulp preferences: from Original (sans pulp), to Homestyle (some pulp), to Grovestand (plentiful pulp), as well as other varieties.