In 2nd period today, we talked a bit about how in advertisement, advertisers will carefully control a commercial down to the smallest detail in order to utilize or avoid certain stereotypes. Like OJ with Hertz, as we saw in the documentary, they subtly made it seem like even white people accepted, respected, and even cheered on by white people so to avoid negative stereotypes.
We talked about some of the other ways advertisers will subtly twist or validate their product by simply choosing the right extras, or language, or setting, or facial expressions to covertly alter our opinions on their product. But there are some times when this subtle art of manipulation isn't handled with subtlety.
Remember the "Dr Pepper 10" commercial that kicked up so controversy? The one that oh so subtly targeted the male demographic by having the main character screaming "It's not for women!" behind a backdrop of explosions? Well they weren't the first and won't be the last to aim their ads at men, they weren't even the first soda company to do so. But come on, when your slogan is "It's not for women", it's not really discreet targeting. Was this a clever advertisement strategy or blatant blunder? Your call.
Article on it:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-10-10/dr-pepper-for-men/50717788/1
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zza3GqEL5B0
I think that the creators of this advertisement campaign weren't stupid or sexist at all. I think they cleverly made a decision to have it cause an uproar. In my opinion they could have easily guessed that certain groups would be offended and decided to go with it. Maybe they wanted to create a lot of talk about the company and product which they obviously did if we are still talking about it. I haven't heard of people wanting to boycott Dr. Pepper and calling the Coca-Cola company sexist. Overall I feel the commercial was a success because it got people talking about the product way more than they would have been with a more traditional advertisement. I also felt that it really did offend women that harshly because it mainly was a joke.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Braden that the advertisement was not "blatant blunder" but was a very smart way of marketing their product to men. Hearing "it's not for women" and strong remarks like that will make men truly believe this drink is different from the others because "it's not for women." If women are offending from this commercial they need to think about all of the commercials that are made strictly marketing to just women. These commercials can include make up, feminine products, and other "just for women" products that are never advertised towards men when men can technically use all of these products. If Dr. Pepper truly wanted to discriminate against women, they would have done something more straight forward, not a man in the background saying "its not for women." It was simply a strategy to make the drink seem more manly/
ReplyDeleteI think this is a clever advertisement strategy because it catches attention. Not many ads are still talked about months after they come off the air. I wonder why they decided to target men with this drink. Maybe a zero calorie zero sugar diet drink seems feminine so they wanted a diet drink that macho men would be more comfortable drinking. They added ten calories and two grams of sugar to diet dr pepper and made an ad convincing men that this diet drink could not possibly be seen as feminine. Also, saying that it's not for women could be enough to make some women want to try it.
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