There’s something funny thing about those Dr. Pepper 10 commercials (besides the fact that they should incite us all to boycott the brand forever). My hypothesis: The gender-diet-divide that Dr. Pepper confirmed in its research exists largely BECAUSE of bad advertising that tells the genders what they’re allowed to eat. It was marketers who convinced us that it’s manly to eat a bunch of crap. Now it’s marketers who are giving us a way to drink diet soda.
I could name many, many examples of how this gender-diet-divide is established, but here are a few. Have you ever seen a man in a yogurt commercial? Then there are those awful Miller ads, which tell us to “man up” and drink the correct cheap beer, or else our friends will think we’re gay and laugh at us (that’s actually the message of these ads). And then there have been years of terrible fast food ads, aimed solely at men. The BK ads by Crispin, the Carl’s Jr. ads; even Wendy’s was moving in that direction by “doubling the bacon.” McDonalds was one of the few exceptions, probably because they prefer to segment by race instead of gender. (That’s a whole ‘nother post.)
Anyway, those commercials for Double Decker Bacon Atomic Greasebombs gave men permission to be disgusting and obese. Thanks! But of course, no such permission was extended to cut down on our caloric intake–and we certainly couldn’t drink the same sodas GIRLS drink. What a dilemma!
Good thing we now have Coke Zero (with the tag line “duh duh, da-duh duh duh“) and Dr. Pepper 10 (tagline: “It’s not for women!“).
I’ve blogged about the advertising race to the bottom before–it’s kind of a pet issue of mine–but even I was amazed by this Ad Age article about the Dr. Pepper 10 campaign. It’s like everything that’s wrong with marketing and business, all wrapped up into one short article.
speaking of evil marketers, do you know any? Steve needs a job.