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.
Meller: Why do you think I have such resistance to feminism?</i
Insecurity, ignorance, poor critical thinking and a desire to dominate women.
I think DKM just realized not all skinny women are feminists.
Joanna: Dances With Fat
captainbathrobe–October12, 2011@11:16am –at her most articulate and well informed…
Spoken like a true “dumb, ignorant motherfucker”.
You tell ’em, captain! It certainly takes one to know one, doesn’t it?
I know that you probably would prefer Earl Browder, Fidel Castro, or perhaps Angela Davis, but their time has passed, and Senor Castro is ineligible on naturalization grounds!
Meller, I know you’re dim, but why do you assume all of us here are women?
I love Diet Dr. Pepper, and I don’t any sleep about artificial sweeteners. I accept any risks that come from them in exchange for enjoying sweets without calories. To each their own.
From the commercial:
Yuck, I can’t stand romantic comedies. They are so formulaic and predictable. My dad watches them, though, and he watches a lot of Lifetime made for TV movies, too. Luckily his TV doesn’t know he’s a man, so he can get away with watching “chick flicks”. He’s such a rebel, watching what he likes and not caring what marketers think.
I don’t know, probably for the same reason that I assume that water is usually wet at room temperature, that ripe oranges are, well, orange, and that a feminist website is going to have a lot of posters who are female!
If I made a mistake in your case, I’m sorry, but, especially with the hyperactive, excitable and irrational posts you wrote, hellkell, it was an easy mistake to make! Most men, even when they disagree with me, do so more reasonably. If you sound like a woman, and write like a woman, don’t be surprised if you are (mis)taken for a woman!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K .Meller
I’m sorry, but as someone who ends 3 out of 4 sentences with an exclamation point then adds 2 more onto his bizarre shouting sig for good measure, I really think you might want to think twice about calling other people hyperactive and excitable. Oh, and am I a woman? Since apparently you can tell people’s gender by the way they write. Or is it just if they disagree with you? Do I need to take a midol? Inquiring minds want to know!
PEACHES AND CREAM!!
Snowy
@Molly Wow, she’s awesome! =D I guess being overweight is often associated with poor health. We need more people like this lady in the media ^_^
“…the hyperactive, excitable and irrational posts you wrote, hellkell…”
I don’t think this was meant ironically, but you just can’t tell with this guy.
DKM:
Huh. So, isn’t it actually written in a “hyperactive, excitable and irrational” way – which is deliciously ironic coming from you, considering your fondness of exclamation marks – instead of a ‘woman way’, or whatever?
I mean, I guess those things are interchangeable in your opinion, but usually, people are individuals and don’t fit neatly in the boxes that you created in your mind.
Since your approach is obviously faulty and makes you look (even more) ignorant, maybe this could be an incentive for you not to judge people based on stereotypes and prejudice, but to engage with them as humans?
I was talking about this, Meller:
I forgot you needed so much hand holding.
Yes, I am a woman. But as others have mentioned, with the way you write–all breathless excalmations! and CAPITALS–you really shouldn’t throw stones. You come across as the stereotypical shrews you accuse us of being. Tell me, is it the male menopause, dearie?
Meller: CB is male.
Others here (a significant majority) are also male.
We like feminists.
They like us.
We complement each other. Everyone is happy.
Except you. Why is it you are so different from the rest of us?
Perhaps it’s the insecurity, ignorance, and lack of critical thinking, combined with no women who will let you dominate them which has made you so excitable; in your midlife crises.
I understand “Male Menopause” can be a bit disconcerting. It’s not quite as easy to get aroused, and all the attendant ills. But Viagra and Cialis are covered under most health plans.
Damn, hellkell beat me to the, specific, punch.
Heh, sorry Pecunium!
All he needs is some testosterone cream, and he’ll be OK. Viagra and Cialis don’t really fix the underlying issues.
Aw, shit, Meller and boners just totally put me off lunch.
hellkell: I alluded to it earlier (the seconal and a hot rod comments).
I don’t see the problem, Meller is a walking boner. He has a hard on for oppressing women, and bending them to his will; against theirs.
Testosterone cream won’t fix the underlying issues, hell they will probably make them worse. Therapy, with a sincere purpose is what he needs, but that’s not gonna happen.
So the best thing for women, in general, is for him to keep being honest about his desires.
True dat.
Darn it, I mean to say lose any sleep. My bad.
Meller,you didn’t answer my questions: WHY should women go out of their way when usually femininity is punished (assaults, pay rate, attitude towards women from people like you) quite often?
Also, I wonder… why did you assume I am a woman? is it because of my nickname? Or the gender neutral photograph I have? I wonder.
Did you try the museum of prehistory? I believe there’s a display of them being hunted by the davidicus melleriamus
thebionicmommy, I liked that about your father watching Lifetime movies.
After my parents retired, they would watch TV while they were eating lunch. My mom said one day she had decided not to watch any more soaps, so she switched to another channel. Then my dad asked, “Aren’t we going to watch The Young and the Restless today?” It turned out that he enjoyed watching it.
He died in 2009 and there’s hardly a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and miss him.
Joanna, if being marginalized and alternately concern-trolled and outright attacked made people skinnier, we’d be a country of supermodels.
If you want to promote health, show fat people excersizing and eating healthy (not “diet” stuff but actual plants and animals), because that’s what a fat person should be aspiring to. (Even if it makes me skinny, I still have to be an exercising fat person first, after all.) Idealizing skinny people just tells us fatties that we’re different and worse, and that doesn’t get me in a real health-promotin’ sort of mood.
Dingdingding! We have a winner! Come to the front of the store to claim you internet!
“Why only straight men?”
Because he thinks gay men are actually women in disguise? Because the real core of his question is “why should there be anywhere that men can’t sexually harrass women?” and he’s at least smart enough to have realized that gay men don’t tend to do that?
I dunno, I don’t speak sexist asshole, but he’s clearly trying to pull some sort of clumsy gotcha a la Toy Soldier. Why do they always do this? Guys, if you’re going to try to trick people into revealing information that you think they’re trying to hide you need to be a lot more sneaky.
I can haz some Internet? 🙂