How do you market a diet soft drink to men? If you’re Dr. Pepper, you rely on gender stereotypes of typical masculine and feminine roles. This advertisement for “Dr. Pepper 10” is set in a fictional action movie and uses the hero to sell the soda to men. He tells us that “It’s only 10 manly calories, but with all 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper. It’s what guys want.” It is obvious that Dr. Pepper is exploiting men’s insecurities over their own masculinity in this ad: the crux of the commercial’s argument is that masculinity is defined by a lack of femininity, a cultural belief that is extremely pervasive in our society. Indeed, women aren’t even allowed to drink it, as the hero tells us “ladies” that “Dr. Pepper 10 is our soda...You can keep the romantic comedies and lady-drinks—we’re good.” The advertisement ends with the slogan “Dr. Pepper 10: it’s not for women.”
Thankfully, this commercial has recently sparked a backlash in the online community, with websites such as Jezebel.com and Gothamist.com writing articles criticizing the way it enforced stereotypical gender roles. An online petition has even sprung up to have the ad pulled from the airwaves. What do you think it says about our society that men today see diet sodas as equitable to emasculation, to the point that advertisers feel the need to overcompensate to such an offensive degree?
This commercial can be easily grouped with lite beer commercials in the sense that companies are selling a diet product, and typically feminine, to men. I feel like these companies realize how ridiculous they are getting with the hyper-masculine technique, so they are just going even farther for comedic effect. Unfortunately it has gone too far to the point of being offensive. I honestly am curious to meet a man who buys Dr. Pepper 10 because "it's not for women" because I feel like he looks like Rambo and hasn't talked to a woman successfully in years, if ever.
ReplyDeleteI work as a bartender in a restaurant and I do notice a certain hesitation when men order a diet soda instead of a regular soda. I suppose it is because men are not supposed to care about their weight, that is a women's thing to do. I think that this commercial proves the point that the chapter on masculinity was making, which was if advertisers make a product look like tough men use it, then the men that buy the product will be tough, just like men in the commercial, even if the product advertised is usually targeted towards women.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a certain stigma when men order a diet soda when ever they go out to a restaurant. Men are typically seen as people who are Ok with their weight, and if the order a diet soda ,they will be seen as insecure! Most men that I know don't drink soda, and when I ask why, they say, "I don't because that's my wife's soda, and she would kill me if I drank that, and anyway I don't need to diet." So in the case of this commercial, Dr. Pepper tries to make drinking soda manly!
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