Dr. Pepper Commercial - Not For Women
This video is an
interesting and unique take by advertisers. The men in this video are
clearly being cast as a stereotype, but the over-arcing theme and
apparent message is the twist. Do you feel that the message is truly
only selling to men? How does watching
this commercial make you feel as a man, or as a woman? Are the authors
of this video making fun of stereotypes or using them for their own
gain? Do the specific scenes or his demeanor matter?
Things to consider : Clothing, action, message, theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8
I want to start off by saying I think this commercial is lame.
ReplyDeleteDiet pops were at first targeted towards women. Calling a pop diet gives it the impression that it is for people who are concerned about their weight and that's only women(right?). So to target a male audience that they aren't reaching with diet pops, they removed diet and call it Dr.Pepper 10. Dr.Pepper then tries to attract this male audience by using a lot of action: angry snake, bad guys on motorcycles, and guns. They then pile on the sexism by letting women "it's not for women!" and telling them to keep their lady drinks.
I thought this was sexist and it made me a little pissed off.
I agree that the commercial is sexism. The final line, “Dr. Pepper Ten is not for women.” obviously suggests the advantage of being a man then being a woman. So, the commercial first lost its female audiences; however I don’t think the male audiences would appreciate that neither. The commercial keeps emphasizing that drinking diet pops is manly. However, just like Katle said, “diet sodas have the notion of being ‘feminine.’”, which means that Dr. Pepper’s manly symbol comes from femininity. That is ridiculous.
DeleteOverall, I don’t think this commercial is successful.
I agree with Justin. i thought this was kind of ironic how it said girls can go back to their "lady drinks" which does imply diet drinks and yet this is a diet drink that they're selling. They just made a commercial with gun fights and jungles and called it a man's drink. This definetly excluded women when they blatantly said its not a woman's beverage which will affect who buys the product. If they took out "it's not for women", the commercial would be even more effective while still being described as manly
DeleteI agree with Xuan Wang that this commercial is not successful. This commercial limited their consumers itself by directly saying that "it's not for women". I think that the soft drinks in the commercial do not have to choose one gender. (only men in this commercial) And I think it doesn't make men want to buy this drink only by changing the name from "diet pop" to "Dr. Pepper 10". It is not that men drink more of coke than the diet coke because of the "diet" in front of its name. It is because they know that the tastes are a little different, which men like coke more. Therefore, I think it is useless to just change drink's name and to say that It is not for women.
DeleteI agree with Justin about the commercial not being that good. Although I don't feel its sexist, Dr. Pepper is being very explicit as to who their audience is and who they want to target. In this case Dr. Pepper is targeting men. The drink is to be a diet drink that is for men. It has, "only 10 Manly calories” The whole time the guy in the commercial is doing "Manly things", fighting angry snakes in a jungle that resembles something out of Jurassic park. The theme is definitely action movie and adventure both things "real men" love. I'm not sure if the director is mocking these things though. The message I took when I first saw this was its for men but the adventurous counter culture women would drink it.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Justin, it is sexist towards women in many ways even though if they wanted to drink it they could. In the video they even address women asking if they enjoy the film and answering it, as probably not, because they are doing all kinds of manly events that they wouldn’t think a women would want to do. Also by changing the name to Dr. Pepper 10 makes it sound more of a manly drink then using the word diet drink. Where in today’s society people tend to think only women drink diet drinks and men cant be seen drinking a diet beverage because they are afraid people might see them as unmanly. This commercial was definitely meant to attract the male figure not so much women, which isn’t right.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that the commercials motives weren't "right" do to the fact that it was taking a product, adding a new strategy to the product and advertising it to the target demographic in the way they(company and director) saw fit. of course there are the blatant tones of males being remarked to as dominant over the "lesser" female gender but that is too be taken into consideration with the actual commercial itself. From the first 10 seconds, it is obvious that this is all one big joke. the fake snake, laser beam guns, and bad guys in black on little motorcycles is all part of the gag. If there was a law passed that said men and only men can buy and drink this product due to the "fact" that they are superior to women, then thats's going too far. This commercial on the other hand, is a joke.
DeleteI definitely think that this commercial is sexist, however, I don’t think it is over the top offensive. I think Dr. Pepper is simply trying to broaden their consumers of diet products by making them seem more manly. I think they do this by mocking what the stereotypical man thinks is manly. As a woman I do not feel offended by this commercial, however, I can understand how a man would be since they are directly mocking that gender. I think the authors of this video are making fun of the stereotype in order to sell the product. I think that if women looked deeper into this commercial, they could be offended that they are trying to make a diet soda manly because of the fact that diet sodas have the notion of being “feminine.” This reminds me of the Old Spice commercial except the man is talking directly to another man rather than a woman.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Katie, that this commercial has many sexist characteristics, but it is not all that offensive. It makes use of the same type of idea that the Old Spice commercial aimed to portray; the over amplification of gender stereotypes to make a point or sell a product. In both cases humor and mockery of the various gender stereotypes seen in our society are used as techniques to sell a product. One thing that I disagree with in your argument is that the main character is talking directly to other men. I saw it as the man talking to women, saying that Dr. Pepper 10 is too manly for women, and other things of that nature.
DeleteThis commercial definitely includes many gender stereotypes and sexist characteristics. I feel that the creators of this commercial are not trying to sell the product, Dr. Pepper 10, to just men. I believe that women are also targeted in this ad campaign through the use of humor and the amplification of gender stereotypes. The fact that this commercial includes such blatant stereotypical phrases as, “It’s not meant for women,” and references to such supposedly feminine things as “romantic comedies” and “lady drinks" demonstrates how the creators are making fun of the gender stereotypes seen in our society to help sell this product to women. The commercial does target men as well through the use of guns, lasers, explosions, and sayings such as “Ten manly calories.” I believe the creators did this in order to broaden their consumer range to the male gender, as diet drinks are usually thought of as a feminine product. As one can see, the authors of this commercial are making fun of stereotypes for their own personal gain. As a woman, I did not find the commercial particularly offensive; I found it more laughable than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree here with the concept of the commercial targeting both males and females. If we recall the Old Spice commercial with the guy on the horse, the same tactical ploy was used, but the other way around. This commercial is talking to men, but really targeting women the most. I feel that the commercial is promoting women to test the social norm and instead drink a pop made for men. It is obvious that the company is targeting men with just the simple stereotypes they use throughout, like action, danger, and explosions, which are seen as being the only things guys are into. All in all, I believe this product is more of a being rallied towards women than men.
DeleteInteresting concept. Perhaps there is an initial shock factor they might be going for as well? Even in a semi-satirical tone, its rare that any product would verbalize its exclusion of a particular sex. Would it stand out next time you were looking at soft drinks? Also, how far could the next commercials go? Slipperly slopes can be dangerous concepts.
DeleteHonestly, I just feel like this commercial was made with little to no actual planning. It seems to me like whoever is running Dr. Pepper's public relations wanted to market their new diet soda to men and just ran way too overboard on the idea. Not only does this add completely turn away potential female customers, it only targets the men who think real men are rugged, suave soldiers- not fathers, womanizers, etc. It completely misses the point and I think most of the above comments reflect that.
ReplyDeleteAs others have stated, this commercial is obviously targeting men, on the premise that Dr. Pepper is "manly" and not "soft" like diet drinks that women are portrayed to love. The commercial backs this up by showing "manly" action/demeanor in the background. The commercial ends by showing the words "Its Not For Women," which supports the commercials initial premise. Although I agree with others in that this commercial turns away potential female customers, i feel as though the director wanted to use some reverse psychology here. The message was that Dr. Pepper is too "manly" for women, implying that women are too "soft" for the drink. I feel like this could be viewed as a challenge to some women. Inevitably, some women might go out and buy Dr. Pepper, solely to prove that the drink is not "too manly" for women. So this commercial predominately targets men, but can target a smaller group of women as well.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Chris when he says that this commercial could be viewed as a challenge towards women to try this "manly" drink since it specifically states that is it not for women at all and that women can stick to their romantic movies and lady drinks. It does seem to use reverse psychology to try and get the attention of women who consider themselves to be tough and show that the drink can be for women also. It could turn down women that are too "soft" for the drink, or it could bring out their competitive side and make them want to try the beverage even more just to prove that they can too can handle this masculine drink.
DeleteI felt that this commercial definitely used many stereotypes aimed at men. It pretty much said that only men can enjoy action films, only men can shoot weird laser guns, and only men can drink this new 10-calorie soda. It also stereotypes women as unexciting romantic movie lovers. Although it does make fun of action movies by having the main character say "catchphrase," since most cheesy action movies have the main character always say a certain catchphrase. I can see where this commercial may be viewed as somewhat offensive towards women, but I don't think that it was meant to upset women and make them not want to drink the "manly" Dr. Pepper. I think that this commercial was more so aimed at men so they could have a diet drink that was considered masculine since women are usually shown to drink beverages with next to no calories. I think that Dr. Pepper just wants to sell their diet drink to men and make them feel less feminine while they drink those "ten manly calories."
ReplyDeleteI like your last statement, as it puts the commercial in perspective. From that mindset, this commercial could be a comedy because it does use stereotypes so blatantly.
DeleteI also agree with you that it's not meant to upset women. The man is only addressing women in the commercial and since he's stereotyping them so much they're meant to be a joke and not offend anyone.
The commercial is obviously designed with men as the target audience. It reminds me of the 1983 Old Spice commercial in how it restricts its target audience by directly excluding a certain population, women. Much like the Old Spice commercial said “not him” for several different stereotypes, this commercial directly states “It’s not for women.” The restrictive statement once again is designed to have an appealing quality to those who are not restricted. By saying that it is not for women the commercial is saying that the product is a manly drink and therefore, those who are “manly” should drink it. The effectiveness of this marketing is questionable. Cutting out prospective female buyers is certainly not something that would create profit for Dr Pepper. The question is whether this marketing is good enough to make up for those losses through a large number of male buyers. It is very confusing why the commercial chooses to completely exclude women from being in the target audience when they could be equally interested in the product. To me this does not seem like an effective commercial based on the marketing tactic.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection to the 1983 Old Spice commercial. It stood out to me too that this Dr. Pepper commercial seems to blatantly exclude people from buying the product. I think this commercial seems to do it in an even more extreme manor than Old Spice. While I believe both commercials are meant to be comical, I think Dr. Pepper truly only intends their product to be sold to men and no one else. This seems weird to me considering the product is a soft drink; something that both men and women typically enjoy as a gender-neutral item.
DeleteWhy do the advertisers think that men would want to buy this product? Is it because it only has ten calories or the guns,or motorcycles? I think the director feels men are influenced by the rugged macho type, but this is ridiculous. Do they think that REAL men would drink their product due to it only having ten calories? The typical male, who stays active and fit, would not be concerned about taking in calories by drinking any kind of pop. As for Chris‘s comment about the advertiser trying to use reverse sociology to sell this product to women. Dr. Pepper executives need to wake up, and realize that women need to be given a little more credit than that. Women should definitely think twice before buying in to this hog wash that by drinking Dr. Pepper this would be healthy alternative for us because it only contains ten calories.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone about the sexism aspect of this video. It’s saying that diet drinks aren’t manly enough, and they’re for women, but what is 10 calories really going to do? There isn’t really any difference. Ten calories isn’t going to make or break a diet, so this drink is just for a man to not lose his “manliness” by drinking a diet pop. Someone can definitely tell that the intended audience for this commercial is men. There are snakes, motorcycles, and guns which all are associated with men and manly qualities. This commercial also has the potential to kind of offend women. It makes it seem that only women need to drink diet drinks because they need to lose weight. It also seems that this video could be issuing a challenge to women. Most people react to a challenge they are given, just prove someone wrong, so this commercial could make women go out and buy Dr. Pepper just to prove that they can do and drink anything men can.
ReplyDeleteDr. Pepper is a soft drink; personally I don't think there is anything gender-specific about the product. This commercial however uses male/female stereotypes throughout the entire advertisement which are presented in ways meant only to attract men to the drink. Because low calorie drinks and diet drinks are stereotypically affiliated with women, I think Dr. Pepper's main goal though was to present a low calorie drink to men that they can consider "manly". A drink with only "ten manly calories."
ReplyDeleteDo you feel that some men might consciously or subconsciously drink Dr. Pepper after seeing this ad specifically because it says not for women? They do not want to be associated with anything "girly", and perhaps they could see this as something society may consider more "manly"?
DeleteI feel some men would buy this product subconsciously because it would make them appear manlier, or less feminine. Having the product marketed at ten calories rather than a diet soda may lead men to think that this isn’t going against their manhood. This is seen similarly with alcoholic beverages; men tend to stick with beer while women have mixed fruity drinks. Society views diet or low calorie drinks to be associated with women who care about what their bodies are taking in. I thought that Dr. Pepper approached to marketing this healthier choice was smart tactic. It allows men to subconsciously approve buying a diet soda, and still let women purchase the soda too. I don’t feel that women would be overly upset with the advertisement, and wouldn’t impact their choice of buying the product. It might in turn encourage women to buy the product. In order to maintain their man’s status they might buy him a drink that is titled ten calories rather than diet.
DeleteOn a side note, do you think women should be offended or upset by the advertisement?
At the first time, I feel this advertisement is targeting on men. But after rethinking the why they say that “the drink, with only ten manly calories per can, is only for men but not women who enjoy romantic comedies instead of action movies as depicted in the ads”, I think this ad is also targeting on women audience. How is it going to work? Antagonistic psychology, I think most women who watched this ad will disagree with what he says. Then what to do to fight back? They drink dr Peper to prove he is wrong. This ad might work, but it sure will be controversial. However being controversial sometimes is good for increasing product publicity since people will talk and discuss more about it.
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