On the Jianlibao website, at the beginning of its brand introduction, it wrote in a sentence: "Jinlibao, the father of national sports drinks."
The prominent display on the homepage is the packaging design of the "Longfeng Chengxiang bottle" after the joint name of Jianlibao and the Forbidden City. The pattern of the full-screen Chinese style also seems to be consistent with the positioning of "national beverage".
Screenshot of Jianlibao website.
But the title of "the father of national sports drinks" has long gone. From June 26, 1984 to June 26, 2020, this sports drink after 37 years of ups and downs has long lost its glory.
Now when we talk about Jianlibao, people often use the question of "drinked it" to arouse the memories of the times, and the name of "China Magic Water" that was born with Chinese sports that year seems to have been forgotten. .
The award-winning clothes worn by Xu Haifeng at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. China News Agency reporter Tomita
"China's Magic Water" for the First Olympics Shines with Gold Medal
In 1984, Li Jingwei, then director of Sanshui Distillery in Sanshui County, Guangdong Province, accidentally obtained a new sports drink recipe from the researcher of Ouyang Xiao from the Institute of Guangdong Academy of Sports Sciences. Li Jingwei saw the business opportunities, and immediately invested in development. A few months later, a sports drink called "Jianlibao" was born.
Said to be born, in fact, Jianlibao at this time has neither a production line nor a sales channel. Li Jingwei believes that since it is a sports drink, of course it must rely on sports to gain a reputation.
Coincidentally with the return of the Chinese sports delegation to the Olympics in 1984, Li Jingwei decisively invested in sponsorship, making Jianlibao a special beverage for the Chinese delegation. Jianlibao sports drinks were able to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games with Chinese sports athletes.
Data map: Xu Haifeng. China News Service issued Liu Xiaojun photo
The Chinese delegation that returned to the Olympic family shined in Los Angeles, earning 15 gold medals and ranking fourth in the gold medal list. This quickly attracted the attention of the international sports world, and from Xu Haifeng, Luan Jujie to Li Ning, the "Jianlibao" that frequently appeared beside Chinese athletes gradually attracted people's attention.
This concern reached its peak as the Chinese women's volleyball team achieved the "three consecutive championships" in the World Series in Los Angeles.
In the semi-finals of the Los Angeles Olympics women's volleyball team, the Chinese women's volleyball team defeated the Japanese women's volleyball team known as the "Toyo Witch" and stepped into the finals. This also attracted great attention from the Japanese media.
A reporter from Tokyo News was surprised to find that Chinese women's volleyball players were drinking a drink he had never seen before during the competition. Afterwards, he published an article titled "Rapid Attack by "Magic Water"?" "Lace Press Release.
The Los Angeles Olympics Chinese women's volleyball team defeated Japan to reach the finals.
In the article, he speculated that "Chinese athletes won 15 Olympic gold medals, probably because they drank some kind of magical new sports drink-Jianlibao". In fact, he did not know that this new drink he had not seen, he Shi has not even mass-produced sales in China, so it seems very mysterious.
Subsequently, his article was discovered by the Chinese media that also reported on the Los Angeles Olympics, and was sent back to China with a report titled "China Magic Water" that swept Los Angeles.
The news quickly spread that the collision of "China Magic Water" and "Oriental Witches" and the great success of the Chinese delegation in the Los Angeles arena have greatly inspired national pride. As a special drink for the Chinese delegation, Jianlibao has also received unimaginable attention.
However, after verification, the "China Magic Water" originally reported in Japanese media did not refer to Jianlibao alone, but the five beverages selected by the Chinese delegation, including Jianlibao.
Screenshot of Japanese media reports.
The earliest relevant reports returned to the country, titled "Japan praises China's "Jianlibao" as "magic water" that will cause a sports drink revolution", but in the process of being widely spread later, the word "wait" gradually disappeared . Jianlibao was able to "exclusively enjoy the glory" and jumped up quickly.
According to reports, in 1984, Jianlibao, which first appeared on stage, had sales of 3.45 million yuan, and in 1985 it reached 16.5 million yuan. In the new year, Jianlibao's sales have reached 130 million yuan.
Of course, Jianlibao's popularity is not based solely on this "Oolong" incident.
Jianlibao classic packaging.
The orange sports drink of the association sports rises "Jianli Baoxing"
After the exposure of the Los Angeles Olympics, Jianlibao became famous in China. In 1985, Jianlibao Beverage was named the first national best sports drink, and then won the National Sports Science and Technology Progress Award, becoming the national banquet drink of the Great Hall of the People.
The ensuing growth of products and distributors and the geometric rise of sales, and the dominance of "the first national beverage brand" for 15 years thereafter.
After gradually opening the market, Jianlibao has never forgotten the positioning of "sports drinks" and its marriage with Chinese sports.
In 1985, Jianlibao sponsored 500,000 RMB of Chinese sports; a year later, they became the sponsor of the Chinese delegation at the 10th Asian Games.
On the e-commerce platform, Jianlibao buyers' comments.
In 1987, Guangdong Jianlibao Co., Ltd. was formally established. They immediately invested 3.5 million RMB in the Guangzhou National Games that year and became the largest sponsor of the current competition; in 1988, after the establishment of Guangdong Jianlibao Company in the first Olympic Games, they As a matter of course, it once again joined forces with the Chinese Olympic Corps and became a special drink for the Chinese delegation.
Against the backdrop of vigorous development of Chinese sports, Jianlibao has rapidly risen through various sports meets and entered a golden period.
In 1990, when Li Jingwei and his Jianlibao reached a cooperation with the Beijing Asian Games, he took out a super sponsorship of 16 million yuan. Of course, he received a super order of 750 million yuan and the output and profit of the Chinese beverage industry in 1991. One's market performance.
Subsequently, Jianlibao Group, which was not content with this, achieved another popular marriage with China Sports.
In 1992, in order to impact the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, the Chinese Football Association and Jianlibao Group signed an agreement to formally form the Jianlibao Junior Football Team.
That team was led by Zhu Guanghu, and Jianlibao also became a key word in his coaching career. Image source: Osports All Sports Pictures
With the support of Jianlibao Company, a total of 29 teenagers from all over the country went to São Paulo, Brazil for further study, known as the "Jinlibao Project". A legend in the history of Chinese football began. At that time, the two sides of the cooperation would not have thought that the association would bring the pinnacle of Chinese football in decades.
It is not just Chinese football that has reached its peak.
On August 28, 1994, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Jianlibao, with the approval of the International Asteroid Nomenclature Committee, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences named its discovered asteroid 3509 as "Sanshui Jianlibaoxing". This is the world's first star named after a company. Jianlibao Company was in the limelight for a while.
Looking back at the list of "Jianlibao Boys" now, Sun Jihai, Sui Dongliang, Li Tie, Li Jinyu, Zhang Xiaorui, Li Weifeng and other famous Chinese star names later on the list are impressive. Statistics show that 10 people in this team have been selected for the national team, and nearly 20 people have played in the domestic top league. The four little swans including Li Jinyu, Li Tie, Sui Dongliang, and Zhang Xiaorui are even more famous.
The picture shows Zeng Zhi's Chinese football team marching into the 1998 World Cup in France. In the warm-up match in Beijing, the Myanmar team beat the Myanmar team five to zero. At that time, Li Tie, a teenager of Jianlibao youth team who returned from Brazil to study abroad, scored a goal. Photo by Ren Chenming
However, in August 1998, because the dispute over the ownership of the players could not be resolved, the Chinese Football Association announced the dissolution of this Jianlibao youth team, and the first stage of cooperation between Jianlibao and Chinese football also ended.
Chinese football reached its peak in the early 21st century. Jianlibao’s golden years ended before that time.
The imprint of the national beverage between right and wrong
Entering the 21st century, Jianlibao continues to be turbulent. First, the manager Li Jingwei disagreed with the actual controller of the company, and then the leaders who had received much attention from the society changed several times. In the end, Jianlibao failed to reproduce the glorious past.
Shenzhen Jianlibao team Li Yi held the trophy. Image source: Osports All Sports Pictures
During this period, Jianlibao, who once abandoned the sports drink route, also tried to pick up "old friendship" again.
At the end of 2002, Jianlibao Group acquired Shenzhen Football Club wholly-owned and changed its name to Shenzhen Jianlibao Football Club the following year.
In 2004, this football club named by Jianlibao won its first league title and became the first Guangdong province team to win the Chinese football top league championship. It also qualified to participate in the 2005 AFC Champions League.
Since the A-League League was transformed into the Chinese Football Super League in 2004, this Shenzhen Jianlibao team has also become the "first year" champion of the Chinese Super League. Immediately after that, they won the second place in the Super Cup and the third place in the AFC Champions League.
But the excellent results this time did not help Jianlibao's business performance much. After experiencing equity transfers and multiple changes in shareholders, Jianlibao faded out of Chinese football for the second time.
Jianlibao Guangzhou Asian Games poster.
A few years later, when the Asian Games returned to Guangzhou again, Jianlibao, which was in its trough, was still qualified as a designated sports drink sponsor with a high sponsorship fee of 80 million yuan, trying to revive the Jianlibao brand through the Asian Games. But the orange ocean that year was unable to reproduce.
There is a saying that of course people must rely on personal struggle, but they must also consider the historical process. The same was true of Jianlibao's success that year. This "national drink" that had an intimate relationship with Chinese sports since birth was branded with the changes of Chinese sports.
As the pioneers of Chinese sports drinks, they took the ride and thrived on the success of Chinese sports under the wave of reform and opening up.
Jianlibao poster.
Jianlibao, which started with the development of China's sports reform, achieved its own "nationalization" development under the goal of sports socialization and became the first generation beneficiary of domestic sports marketing;
And when the professionalization of Chinese football is in full swing, Jianlibao has also stepped up perfectly, branding his name in the history of Chinese football.
Unfortunately, Jianlibao, which once used up the dividends of China's sports development, failed to achieve transformation and upgrading as China's sports reforms deepened. After 37 years of history, "Jianlibao" has gone from a legend in sports history to a nostalgic symbol. This is certainly a feeling, but I have to say that it is a pity.
The magic power of "China Magic Water" fades away, and the good memories of a generation of those years are also in the passage of the times, turning into a sigh of sighing Baiju's gap.