Slice is staging a comeback for the generation raised on FM countdowns and mixtapes. With a healthier recipe and a retro radio campaign, the soda is targeting consumers who remember the original and are ready for a healthier, gut-friendly pour
Your childhood soda just got a gut-healthy, better-for-you makeover.
Slice, the beloved fruit soda that defined ’80s vending machines, roller rinks and kitchens, is popping back into the market with fewer calories, probiotics and a healthy dose of retro flair. Leading the reboot is 106.3 The Fizz FM, a branded radio experience featuring AI-generated DJ sets designed to transport listeners back to the heyday of ’80s and ’90s pop culture.
Relaunched by Suja Life, the health-focused beverage company behind cold-pressed juices and wellness shots, Slice is getting the ultimate “health edit,” joining functional soda disruptors Olipop and Poppi, which was recently acquired by PepsiCo. The revamped soda keeps the fizzy, fun and classic flavors but ditches high-fructose corn syrup and sugar overload in favor of a gut-friendly mix of prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics. Each can clocks in at 40 calories or less, with five grams of sugar or less.
Consumers can find Slice in a range of flavors, including Orange, Grape, Lemon Lime, Classic Cola, Ginger Ale, Grapefruit Spritz and Strawberry, at major retailers such as Costco, Target, Kroger and Albertsons. The brand plans to expand to additional outlets in the coming months. A new Cherry Cola flavor will debut at Sprouts, with wider distribution slated for July.
“Today’s Slice is a healthified version of the original while tasting like pure nostalgia,” said Nicole Portwood, chief marketing officer at Suja Life, the parent company of Slice Soda. “Parallel to that, blending the best of then and now, our summer activities, including The Fizz FM, are activations only this brand can do – celebrating the era in which the brand was born but with a retro-refreshed Slice edge.”
The Fizz FM delivers nearly three hours of looping content built around the biggest genres of the ’80s and ’90s with one fizzy twist: every song is about soda. At the helm is “DJ Bev,” the station’s AI-powered host, who guides listeners through a cheeky “Pop 40 Countdown” packed with nostalgic flair.
And while everything might feel Gen Z-coded these days, Slice’s campaign is squarely aimed at Millennials (and those often-overlooked younger Gen Xers) who lived the mixtapes, FM countdowns and first sips of Slice in its original run.
Tracks span everything from pop-punk to yacht rock, with fictional acts like Lipstick Trigger belting out “Lipstick Stain on My Slice” and boy band Prime Mode crooning “My Favorite Slice of When.” Each act comes complete with album art, imagined backstories and interviews to create an immersive time-capsule vibe.
There’s even late-night love advice. “Dr. Poplov,” voiced via Google’s Chirp speech-to-text model, offers syrupy-smooth counsel in his “Slice Advice” segment, tackling dilemmas like what to do when your boyfriend keeps stealing your soda.
Starting June 20 (the first day of summer) The Fizz FM will dial up the nostalgia with a daily call-in contest. Fans can phone 1-877-WIN-FIZZ and leave a message explaining why they’re the ultimate Slice superfan. Daily winners will receive brand swag and be entered into a grand prize drawing for a year’s supply of Slice Soda.
“The Fizz FM is pure vibes, that carefree feeling of driving with the car windows down, wind in your hair while singing along to songs of the summer,” Portwood said. “We say they are yesterday’s hits that didn’t exist until now. Of course, the wink here is that it’s one long ad. The songs are overt love songs to our product, which is the nod we want everyone to get. I’ve been amazed at what can happen when you pair cutting-edge technology with real creative firepower.”
