Bootleg-'the high class carbonated beverage'

[Canadacan]

This Bootleg soda can has to be one of the coolest cans I own!... I mean come on bullet hole graphics!
The opposite side of this 10oz can reads " the high class carbonated beverage' Very little is know about this scarce brand from Namac Co. Toronto.
My friend in Ontario has the only other example we've seen, his thoughts is this was a tonic water.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Wow that's very cool! I've never seen one of those before. Is it a pull-tab top?

 

[Canadacan]

Wow that's very cool! I've never seen one of those before. Is it a pull-tab top?

Thanks!...no it's a flat top can that was bottom opened. The lids aren't as shiny as I could hope for, but it's a very solid can for sure.

 

[CanadianBottles]

I was Googling to see if I can find any information on the company and I saw your entry for it on the can site. Yeah it really doesn't seem like there's much info about this one out there at all. Where does Namac Company come from? Is it printed on the can? Any idea why your friend thinks it was a tonic water?
The fact that it's bilingual and not metric is interesting. Bilingualism on packaging came in in '74 and metrification in '76, so it's possible it was a late flat top from 1975, but I think it's more likely that it was intended to be sold in Quebec.
The use of the Quebec-specific word "liqueur" also suggests that they were targeting the Quebec market rather than just trying to meet labelling requirements. "Boisson" or "breuvage" is much more common to see, and you wouldn't find the word "liqueur" in a French-English dictionary. It also means that someone at the company (or their translation agency I guess) would have had enough knowledge of Quebec French to be aware that the word existed at all.
I almost wonder if the clunky wording of "high class carbonated beverage" could have meant that they were actually translating in the opposite direction. It seems unlikely if the company was based out of Toronto, but you'd think that English speakers could have come up with something better to refer to their drink as than "carbonated beverage." Especially since the can doesn't offer any indication of what sort of drink it actually is. And if you're trying to market your beverage as high class, bullet holes and faux-Western font is definitely an odd design choice. But it isn't contradictory to "par excellence."

 

[Canadacan]

I can't find where that company comes from, yes it's printed on the can. He had a hunch on tonic water...probably based on Canada Dry's early tonic water cans were black, Schweppes club soda had black labels, as did a 70's CP water can and a 70's Ice Castle Tonic, not many cans had solid black as a main color.
So as far as it being bilingual, I will note that Orange Crush had that as early as 1966 on the brown Mae West bottles.
Ingredients listed is simply 'Contains Benzoate Of Soda' The can is manufactured by Continental Can Company, plant 483, that mark (CC483) was in use on 10oz diamond Coke cans dating from 1965-67 already.
So the can has a silver round bead lid on the bottom used from 61-64 approx., and the top is a silver sloped bead used from 64-68 aprox. but there were some exceptions and I have see some cross over as this can is an excellent example of that, two lid types!
Just as a side note I have seen the early silver round bead lids used on late 60's cans before as I have examples.
I'm not sure what to make of the translation but I know sometimes they struggled to get it right!
One other thing I noted it the contents is shown only as 10 FL OZ ....More of a mid to late 60's thing, vs 70's cans showing 10 OZ LIQ as well.

 

[RCO]

This Bootleg soda can has to be one of the coolest cans I own!... I mean come on bullet hole graphics!
The opposite side of this 10oz can reads " the high class carbonated beverage' Very little is know about this scarce brand from Namac Co. Toronto.
My friend in Ontario has the only other example we've seen, his thoughts is this was a tonic water.

View attachment 224160
View attachment 224161

no ideas on this one , never found or seen this can before

seems odd they would of only done tonic water , as tonic water was already widely available thru most other brands ( Canada dry , Schweppes , store brands etc )

 

[Canadacan]

no ideas on this one , never found or seen this can before

seems odd they would of only done tonic water , as tonic water was already widely available thru most other brands ( Canada dry , Schweppes , store brands etc )

Yeah we're at a bit of a loss, I can't find anything on Canada trade mark, nothing in the paper archive. It's so odd no flavor is printed.

 

[RCO]

Yeah we're at a bit of a loss, I can't find anything on Canada trade mark, nothing in the paper archive. It's so odd no flavor is printed.

it must of been a fairly small bottler , doubt they only had 1 flavour , must of been others , unless they used same can for everything and identified flavour on box or carton

but the whole thing is very confusing

not sure how we could find any other info of them

 

[CanadianBottles]

I can't find where that company comes from, yes it's printed on the can. He had a hunch on tonic water...probably based on Canada Dry's early tonic water cans were black, Schweppes club soda had black labels, as did a 70's CP water can and a 70's Ice Castle Tonic, not many cans had solid black as a main color.
So as far as it being bilingual, I will note that Orange Crush had that as early as 1966 on the brown Mae West bottles.
Ingredients listed is simply 'Contains Benzoate Of Soda' The can is manufactured by Continental Can Company, plant 483, that mark (CC483) was in use on 10oz diamond Coke cans dating from 1965-67 already.
So the can has a silver round bead lid on the bottom used from 61-64 approx., and the top is a silver sloped bead used from 64-68 aprox. but there were some exceptions and I have see some cross over as this can is an excellent example of that, two lid types!
Just as a side note I have seen the early silver round bead lids used on late 60's cans before as I have examples.
I'm not sure what to make of the translation but I know sometimes they struggled to get it right!
One other thing I noted it the contents is shown only as 10 FL OZ ....More of a mid to late 60's thing, vs 70's cans showing 10 OZ LIQ as well.

Oh yeah if Tornoto is printed on the can then that definitely pokes a big hole in my theory of it being a product from Quebec. I wonder if they were putting French on the can because they had plans of being sold in multiple provinces which never really took off when the product failed.
That's a good point about black generally being used for mineral waters but this one also looks quite a bit different from any other mineral water I've seen. I'm leaning more towards it being a Mountain Dew competitor considering the font they were using, bullet holes (remember the gun on Mountain Dew bottles), and reference to bootlegging (I assume it wasn't a reference to illegal taping and distribution of concert recordings). I think it would be unlikely for a mineral water can to refer to itself as a "carbonated beverage" and if they had multiple flavours I think the can would specify the flavour. Seems more likely to me that Bootleg was its own standalone product. Maybe the can was painted black to look different from any other product out there? If it was a high caffeine product they may have wanted to go for a "dangerous" look as well. That is what Monster Energy does after all.

 

[Canadacan]

Oh yeah if Tornoto is printed on the can then that definitely pokes a big hole in my theory of it being a product from Quebec. I wonder if they were putting French on the can because they had plans of being sold in multiple provinces which never really took off when the product failed.
That's a good point about black generally being used for mineral waters but this one also looks quite a bit different from any other mineral water I've seen. I'm leaning more towards it being a Mountain Dew competitor considering the font they were using, bullet holes (remember the gun on Mountain Dew bottles), and reference to bootlegging (I assume it wasn't a reference to illegal taping and distribution of concert recordings). I think it would be unlikely for a mineral water can to refer to itself as a "carbonated beverage" and if they had multiple flavours I think the can would specify the flavour. Seems more likely to me that Bootleg was its own standalone product. Maybe the can was painted black to look different from any other product out there? If it was a high caffeine product they may have wanted to go for a "dangerous" look as well. That is what Monster Energy does after all.

Yes it could have very well been a MD competitor, it's does have those edgy graphics (bullet holes) lol!!!
Ahhh man the can is a mystery!...I kind of like that, having something that we just can't pinpoint
Speaking of Monster!..hands down they have the best semi repetitive graphics I can think of! Some of the cans even have or had texture on the highlights. I had just happened to have a Loca Moca yesterday and was once again admiring the brown and gold M.
I was actually saving them for a while but cut myself off...and that was really hard because I love the graphic design....I hope someone somewhere a collector is saving them!