Michael Brunda

"You can keep the romantic comedies and ladies’ drinks... We're good." Dr Pepper recently launched a new product called Dr. Pepper 10, and began an interesting marketing campaign to accompany it. The over the top macho commercial has an "action hero" running through the jungle, punching snakes in the middle of a laser gun firefight, before leaping off a cliff into a moving ATV. He goes on to explain that Dr Pepper 10 has only "10 manly calories" throws the can out the side that activates a booby trap net that catches 3 guys on motorcycles that were giving chase... Now, go back and read all that again. It’s ridiculous and obviously built for entertainment value, but wears its target market on its sleeve.

Given how sensational the commercial is, how serious will any of it really be taken? Apparently men don't drink diet soda, but we all know that isn't true. When you target a specific market segment the way that this commercial does, at what point does your marketing scheme do more of excluding everyone else than it does targeting your consumers? Probably, when your catch phrase is "it’s not for women."

The commercial is entertaining and the content of its Face book page (which intentionally excludes women who try to "like" it) is so far over the top it shouldn't be taken seriously. But it’s still making waves with women's advocacy groups.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) has listed the commercial on their "Media Hall of Shame" citing that the campaign "perpetuates stereotypical gender roles, where men are the action heroes of the world and women are submissive, ornamental or out of the picture all together."

While my personal opinion is that some folks are making mountains out of mole hills, that doesn't change the fact that there are already several e-petitions on line, lobbying Dr Pepper to cease the campaign and/or pull the product.

While gender specific marketing isn't anything new, Dr Pepper seems to have taken great strides to not only isolate and market to their target, but also exclude everyone else. Kudos to them for showing some innovation in a shrinking market and attempting to grab a larger share in diet soda sales, but they've clearly overlooked something that their market research has obviously indicated. Diet soda sales may be dominated by women, so how does offending and excluding them from a new product help your branding, even if you grab the majority share of a "male diet soda drinker" market.

All of that being said, when was the last time you talked about Dr Pepper? When was the last time you read about them in USA today or Forbes magazine? Sometimes bad press is still press. I'm not a soda drinker, but I'll probably buy one if I see one. Whether the rest of the market feels the same, has yet to be seen.

Does the Manly Calorie ad offend you?

Graphic Credit:
Animationfactory.com