![squintyoureyes:
thedailywhat:
Controversial Carbonated Beverage Campaign of the Day: Dr Pepper Snapple Group yesterday unveiled a new low-calorie version of its classic soft drink called Dr Pepper Ten.
Unlike the existing diet Dr Pepper drink, the new beverage will be marketed exclusively to men.
How exclusively? It’s tagline is “it’s not for women.”
The drink’s Facebook page is supposedly open to men only, and upcoming TV spots “heavy on the machismo” tell women to ignore the drink and go back to their “romantic comedies and lady drinks.”
Asked if he was concerned that some might find the sexist undertones in poor taste, Dr Pepper VP of marketing Jim Trebilcock (yep) said “women get the joke” and called the campaign a conversation starter.
As the label suggest, Dr Pepper Ten contains 10 calories from 2 grams of sugar (its non-diet sibling packs a whopping 27 grams of sugar per can). The company assures consumers that while the soda is skimpy on the calories, it still contains all of Dr Pepper’s 23 signature flavors.
[ap.]
what in the hipster hell is this. who cares if we’re dismissing women and perpetuating false and harmful gender dichotomies/prescriptive ideas of masculinity and femininity that cause actual harm to everyone, because it’s a ~conversation starter!!
10 MANLY CALORIES. haha fuck you dude i don’t even like dr pepper.
The thing is, the problem is not this campaign. The problem is not even Trebble-Cock’s comments (and that is what I am choosing to call him). It’s really fatist culture. Thinness is a virtue for women; women already know they’re supposed to be thin. Women have already been trained to buy diet drinks. Ad execs have done their job so well marketing to women by convincing them they need low-cal and diet products, that in order to get men to buy a diet drink (which is automatically associated with women), they need to be THIS GROSS about it. Whoever invented this campaign is a genius. A gross genius, but a genius. Or not even a genius. Maybe it doesn’t even take a genius anymore. Maybe anybody off the street can tell you “Diet Dr. Pepper? Yeah, I see a woman buying that. Real Men Drink Real Dr. Pepper!” and then you get drinks like Coke Zero, which is in a more manly can, and Dr. Pepper Ten, which is NOT FOR WOMEN~~~!! No Girlz Allowed. Refusing to apologize for the blatant sexism is part of the strategy.
This campaign is indefensible… but it’s really only part of the larger problem. I don’t like Dr Pepper anyway, and I’m (apparently emphatically) not their target market, so if I refuse to buy this product, that appears to be a-okay with them. But ad execs won’t stop being gross like this until it hurts in their pocket books. So uh… don’t let anyone you know buy this product.
The end.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lswtfoVrWt1qzpwi0o1_r1_400.jpg)
High-res
Controversial Carbonated Beverage Campaign of the Day: Dr Pepper Snapple Group yesterday unveiled a new low-calorie version of its classic soft drink called Dr Pepper Ten.
Unlike the existing diet Dr Pepper drink, the new beverage will be marketed exclusively to men.
How exclusively? It’s tagline is “it’s not for women.”
The drink’s Facebook page is supposedly open to men only, and upcoming TV spots “heavy on the machismo” tell women to ignore the drink and go back to their “romantic comedies and lady drinks.”
Asked if he was concerned that some might find the sexist undertones in poor taste, Dr Pepper VP of marketing Jim Trebilcock (yep) said “women get the joke” and called the campaign a conversation starter.
As the label suggest, Dr Pepper Ten contains 10 calories from 2 grams of sugar (its non-diet sibling packs a whopping 27 grams of sugar per can). The company assures consumers that while the soda is skimpy on the calories, it still contains all of Dr Pepper’s 23 signature flavors.
[ap.]
what in the hipster hell is this. who cares if we’re dismissing women and perpetuating false and harmful gender dichotomies/prescriptive ideas of masculinity and femininity that cause actual harm to everyone, because it’s a ~conversation starter!!
10 MANLY CALORIES. haha fuck you dude i don’t even like dr pepper.
The thing is, the problem is not this campaign. The problem is not even Trebble-Cock’s comments (and that is what I am choosing to call him). It’s really fatist culture. Thinness is a virtue for women; women already know they’re supposed to be thin. Women have already been trained to buy diet drinks. Ad execs have done their job so well marketing to women by convincing them they need low-cal and diet products, that in order to get men to buy a diet drink (which is automatically associated with women), they need to be THIS GROSS about it. Whoever invented this campaign is a genius. A gross genius, but a genius. Or not even a genius. Maybe it doesn’t even take a genius anymore. Maybe anybody off the street can tell you “Diet Dr. Pepper? Yeah, I see a woman buying that. Real Men Drink Real Dr. Pepper!” and then you get drinks like Coke Zero, which is in a more manly can, and Dr. Pepper Ten, which is NOT FOR WOMEN~~~!! No Girlz Allowed. Refusing to apologize for the blatant sexism is part of the strategy.
This campaign is indefensible… but it’s really only part of the larger problem. I don’t like Dr Pepper anyway, and I’m (apparently emphatically) not their target market, so if I refuse to buy this product, that appears to be a-okay with them. But ad execs won’t stop being gross like this until it hurts in their pocket books. So uh… don’t let anyone you know buy this product.
The end.
