Since dudes apparently scoff at diet drinks, the folks behind the new Dr. Pepper Ten soda decided they needed to really butch up their advertising in order to reach the core soda-drinking demographic, which just happens to be teenage boys. The result? An over-the-top, ironically hypermasculine ad campaign touting the new drink as “NOT FOR WOMEN.”
Here’s one of the ads:
Oh, and they’ve also got a Facebook app that’s — get this! — only available to men! I’m not sure the women of the world are going to suffer much from being banned from playing a rudimentary flash game that involves shooting “girly things.”
I know they’re hoping to generate controversy here, but really? This is just too dumb to even get annoyed about, much less angry. It’s not misogynistic; it’s more a parody of misogyny. Is it such a parody – stereotyping guys as macho buffoons — that it’s actually more misandrist than misogynist? You could make an argument for that, but again the ad is so over the top ridiculous, so soaked in irony, it seems silly to get indignant about this either.
So what’s going to happen when the MRAs of the world hear about this ad? Will they, missing the irony, embrace its Diet Soda Going Its Own Way (DSGIOW) mentality? Or will they denounce it as an example of ad world misandry and pretend to be deeply offended?
I’m betting on the latter. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Dr. Pepper 10 is marketed to men with penises under 10 CM. I understand they had to butch it up because it’s a pansy-ass diet soda, but at some point it becomes a misandrist parody.
And David K. Meller is full of shit, as usual. I’ll just put this here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy
Meller’s text blocks get boring after a while, even with all the cheery exclamation points, but I do like his list of what he apparently imagines are the most common careers for women: office manager, lawyer, and Realtor. He really does get all his information about humans from TV.
In reality, the most common jobs for women in the U.S. today are secretary, nurse, teacher, and cashier–surprisingly similar to the pre-feminist golden age Meller fantasizes about between Gor novels.
Ah the good ol’ PowerThirst video…classic!
@Cynickal: That video was awesome. It would be awesome if girls were more like that. “I want to wear your nutsack as a hat”. HAHAHAHAHAHA
It would be awesome if girls were more like that. “I want to wear your nutsack as a hat”. HAHAHAHAHAHA
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what privilege looks like.
And I don’t mean that as an accusation–it’s not evil and it’s not avoidable. But the reason women don’t think it’s awesome or funny to receive weird sexual threats is because we really have to live with it. “Privilege,” as used in the social justice sense, is the inability to really know what it’s like to live as a different class of people–the inability to empathize with what it’s really like to have strangers feel entitled to say freaky-ass things about your genitals. It’s knowing that women get that kind of shit, but not fundamentally knowing what that kind of shit feels like.
There is a coupon for a free 2 liter in last Sunday’s SmartSource if any dude wants to try it.
DKM: You’re getting boring and repetitive. Maybe you should branch out, get a little bit more into alien conspiracy theories. They’re always popular, and it will keep up your share in the always-competitive troll market. Can’t let the young’uns beat you at your own game!
Also to DKM: For the love of all things holy, figure out how to use a comma properly. Scattering them at random makes your already stupidly overblown walls o’text almost impossible to read.
I understand why the MRM hates women (the fact that we’re not robogirls is so inconvenient), but why do they hate grammar?
Another great moment in DKM history where economics somehow works in a vacuum of time and space.
David Malki! of Wondermark posted a blog today about an old misogynistic screed with the commentary that “society has come a long way.” Except that it sounds pretty much like the 1894 version of an MRA blog: http://wondermark.com/true-stuff-conjugal-duels/comment-page-1/#comment-4262
Grammar is feminazi conspiracy to oppress boys in school. Ditto spelling, logic, stats…
Good old Malki. A while back he posted one of those old-dude screeds about cell phones and then a 1900’s screed about regular phones.
But he will blame organizations that weren’t founded until years later (the IMF was founded in 1945, and the WTO in 1995) for the 1930’s Great Depression! 😀
I heard that the IMF also caused the bubonic plague.
At least blame CERN if you’re going to attack a european group; they might make time machines!
I’m gonna drink Dr. Pepper 10 just to fuck shit up! =D
I can sense shit getting fucked up already. Maybe we can increase the effect if I don’t drink it.
Pffft, fuck Dr. Pepper. I drink something called Zevia: http://www.zevia.com/ And I drink Mexican sodas. ALL OF THE TIME.
You folks have obviously never heard of those things. /soda snob
No, but seriously, dumb ad, dumb product. What can I say that hasn’t been said?
I’m aware that Stonewithaboner is just trolling, but I must say in response to this, because it’s an amazingly common sentiment:
HFCS is no worse than sugar. The problem isn’t that it’s artificial; it’s that it’s fucking everywhere and you’re getting too much of it.
I’d threaten to boycott this, but that would just be playing into their evil schemes!
…Well shit, I’m still not buying any.
Apparently motor boats are now IMPORTANT things that only men can have.
I already don’t drink Dr. Pepper, but alienating fifty percent of your consumers strikes me as the stupidest marketing scheme ever.
Also:
That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve heard all day.
I recall reading somewhere that you don’t get the same satiety signals from HFCS, so it’s easier to overeat etc.? But I might be pulling that out of my ass. :p
Unicorns are just chickenhawks.*
*added to list of “shit I never would have predicted I would say ever”
I am also somewhat amused by the fact that Meller thinks soda is never used in or around the home. Soda is only for wild parties with floozies at them.
Guys are just jealous cos we get periods and stuff. There are tonnes of girls only stuff cos, you know, we have different hormones and everything. This ad is really just a childish “no girls allowed club” rebuttal.
Lol. Ok not literally, but you get the idea. I don’t see why guys need to have gender segregation in anything just to feel more “manly” or whatever.
Wait, wait, wait. David K. Meller said to market more TV to men only? Bwargh? What planet is he living on? There’s lots of TV marketed to men only — especially in the realm of children’s television.