Dr. Pepper has taken on a rather interesting theme with the advertising of Dr. Pepper 10; "Not for Women". We aren't talking about testosterone injections or second day boxers (seriously guys, ew). We're talking about a diet soft drink.
A line like "10 manly calories" won't get any guy I know running down to the local corner store to buy a case. (Oh, my bad. With only 10 manly calories per can he can afford to skip the walk and just drive his Volkswagen Beetle to the store. Might as well pick himself up a copy of this month's Cosmopolitan magazine while he's at it).
Who was head of marketing on this project? Did they flip a coin? Heads says "Let's copy Coca-Cola". Tails says, "Hey, let's tell half the population of people who drink this s*** that it isn't for them, piss-off a few feminists while we're at it, and see if we can hit our projected sales targets. They've treated the campaign like a 10-year-old boy's club house, with a tacky "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" sign nailed to the ladder.
I believe this was an attempt at viral-marketing, much like Axe or Old Spice (but with a pinch of awkward and a dash of epic fail).
Let's face it; the majority of diet pop drinkers are women. You don't need extensive consumer research and an army of geeky dudes in lab coats to figure this one out. Just ask any waitress or bartender who serves drinks daily (that would be me).
My point is, I get where they wanted to go with this campaign- but at the same time the commercial turned me off to the product. There was no need to use casual sexism to create a viral video. On the other hand, you wouldn't catch me dead drinking diet pop regardless of how great the commercial may be.
Now get off your computer and out into the sunshine! Just a word of advice, opt for water. That is- if it's manly enough for you ;)