Thousands sign up to ‘storm’ Irn Bru factory
● Facebook event set up to ‘get full fat back’ due to be held 15 November
More than 2,000 people have joined a plan to “storm” the Irn Bru factory – because they want the original recipe back.
The online campaign has been launched by lovers of the soft drink fed up with the new brew – which has less sugar.
There is now a viral plan to raid the AG Barr factory, steal the original recipe and any stores of old Irn Bru cans and bottles.
The campaign states: “We want full fat back, what they gonna do, phone the polis.”
So far 748 people have responded to the Facebook event, set to take place on 15 November, to say they are going, with nearly 2,000 more saying they are interested.
Last year AG Barr, based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, changed the recipe of their popular product to comply with the UK government’s sugar tax.
Irn Bru’s sugar content was slashed by half, from around 10g per 100ml to just below 5g.
The move attracted widespread dismay among fans of the orange-coloured fizzy drink, with a petition titled “Hands off our Irn Bru” set up in response.
It attracted more than 6,000 signatures.
As the new recipe was introduced, some sweettoothed drinkers even started stockpiling the fizzy drink.
The page is reminiscent of the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” American Facebook event, which encouraged people to invade the secretive, no-go US Air Force base in Nevada, in search of alien life.
Posting on the event page, one cheeky attendee uploaded a picture of a topless man in a kilt saying: “Photo of the front line troops.”
Others commented: “This event should be retitled ‘Storm Area Fizzy Wan’” and “I’ll be outside with a stall selling Irn Bru if anyone wants any. 2 fur a £1.”
Someone else added: “I miss the original recipe! Why not give us the choice and charge a bit extra? I’d pay.”
A spokeswoman for Irnbru said: “We’re always up for online banter but seriously, any potential stormers will be disappointed; there’s not been original recipe BRU on site for well over a year.”
Even though the viral US campaign to Storm Area 51 was a joke, about 6,000 people – many in fancy dress – headed to the area to camp out in the desert.
In August, police were called to the Glasgow branch of the Swedish furniture giant IKEA after thousands of people said they would turn up for a mass game of hide and seek.
Plans were announced on Facebook to turn the store at the Braehead shopping complex into an impromptu playground. But with five police at the store, the hide and seek game never happened.