Dr. Pepper’s new diet drink, “Dr. Pepper Ten,” is “only 10 manly calories,” “bold,” and “not for women.” Or so the soda’s latest Rambo-fied, hyper-masculine commercial claims.
Unlike diet soft drink commercials aimed at women, Dr. Pepper glosses over the diet aspect of the soda with explosions, army fatigue, and laser guns. Why? Because that’s what guys like. By drinking Dr. Pepper Ten, you can fulfill your boyhood fantasies of vaporizing stuffed snakes and capturing masked ninjas—all while consuming fewer calories.
But Dr. Pepper is not the first to try to corner the highly elusive (possibly nonexistent) male diet-soda-drinking market. Let’s take a stroll through a recent history of carbonated masculinity after the jump.
Somehow Diet Pepsi Max thought portraying their male market as strong but utterly dumb was the way to go. While men can get hit in the head by a bowling ball with nary a scratch, Pepsi says, they can’t stomach the possibility of having a sugar-free drink. The horror!
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The geniuses of Mountain Dew wanted to show that with one sip of Diet Mountain Dew, men can “ski on a live volcano,” “take a dip in the Colorado,” and “take your bike way up in the blue.” Funny, because I thought all it did was kill off swimmers.
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Coke Zero’s strategy was to throw in as many male fantasies and symbols as they could—snakes, trucks, rearing stallions. Somehow a hot girl covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce suggests “zero calories and zero sugar.” Yeah.
This (admittedly awesome) ’80s throwback Diet 7 Up commercial shows that beach-blonde women and The Situation–esque men drink Diet 7 Up and it’s all manly and all fun. Plus: teeny weeny yellow bikini!
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The funny thing is that coke zero tastes like shit (and nothing like either other coke drink), and in my opinion I prefer diet coke to coca cola, seems more refreshing to me (again tasting nothing like coca cola). Couldn’t care less about sugar content or calories, I simply prefer the taste of the drink…
A funny and thought provoking essay. How about taking this a little more in depth of the times. Woman comes in from work carrying a baby and bags of groceries…ooops, drops a grocery item………. POW! a fist to the left eye from the ole’ man for being so careless . Man is over to the fridge” to grab an ice cold Dr. Pepper 10 cal to cool off all that exertion. Baby begins to cry because the tyke has not had dinner yet. Wife is anxiously trying to put away groceries and see to feeding the baby…..Annoys the ole’ mans… Read more »