When 3 Orange Men scared Nigerians

Circa 1995, Nigerians were shocked when three strange orange men were spotted on the streets of Lagos.

The three men dressed in all black with orange faces would pop up unannounced in public. This would scare Nigerians, and make many people run in the opposite direction whenever they showed up in public.

And why not? The three orange men looked scary. They looked like very strange, almost alien-like. You know Nigerians, we are not like white people. We are not inquisitive people. Once we see something strange, we peel off.

The three orange men caused a scene when they were seen in public. In a couple of weeks, they were on the lips of everyone. People wanted to know where they came from and what they were doing in Nigeria.

Of course, the religious zealots came up with an answer that the three orange men were signs of the end time. During this period of the mid-90s, end-time prophecies were popular in Nigeria with some men of God predicting the world would come to an end on a certain date.

Shortly after the three orange men phenomenon had reached a fever pitch (the whole thing lasted 2-3 weeks), it was revealed that it was an advertising gimmick by Pepsi to introduce their new drink Mirinda to the Nigerian market.

The alien conspiracies and end of the world prophecies were squashed by Pepsi Co. It was a brilliant way to bring a new soft drink into the market. Before Mirinda, Coke flopped when it introduced Chapman into the market and it failed to be a hit.

And this is the story of how Miranda was introduced in Nigeria. Anytime I see a bottle of Miranda I remember the three orange men. I never met them but their pictures were scary.

Just to add to the story of the three orange men. There is a performance art group known as the Blue Man Group. They look as scary as the three orange men.