Good news from the idiot sales pitch front, friends!
Although boobs and bikinis still do a disappointingly reliable job of selling every product on earth, marketing outright to male-only consumers can backfire.
Dr. Pepper neatly proved this when it launched its recent “It’s Not For Women” campaign for its diet soda that has only “10 manly calories.” This ad, which earned Bitch magazine’s douchebag decree, has been having some unexpected results:
Instead of boosting Dr. Pepper’s perception among men, marketing stats say the campaign has cut approval of the soda among women by 50 percent and among men by nearly 25 percent. I think this is in part because people reject the idea of soda being gendered at all—the ad campaign is creating a problem (“Oh no! Is my soda too girly?”) and consumers immediately see that.
Dr. Pepper was clearly trying to mimic the over-the-top machismo of the Wieden+Kennedy Old Spice Guy, but instead it’s a pathetic example of what happens when a joke is poorly told. Instead of coming off self-mocking, it just makes Mr. Pepper look like an asshole no one—male or female—wants to associate with.
Typical, the problem is the sexism rather than the potential for diabetes. Nice work, scoop.
MR PIBB WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WITH YOU WHY GENDERED SODAS ARE A BAD THING. IT’S NOT YOUR PLACE TO DECREE THAT HE MUST REMOVE HIS PERSONHOOD FROM THE EQUATION. THAT IS JUST SIMPLY NOT FAIR.
I love extreme male-centric marketing. Have you seen the Vaseline “MEN” lotion with the black, rectangularish bottle?
http://www.hairregrowthtreatmentstore.com/…
Dr. Pepper’s marketing people just don’t understand subtlety. You can’t just push a man into it. You have to lean into his back so he can feel your warmth and then caress his neck lightly while you whisper softly, sweetly into his ear
@Will – I use that stuff – read about it in Esquire. Seems to work.
What do you folks think of the Tonkin Fiat dealership billboards around town? The boobs are twice the size of the car.
@Reymont: I wrote them an email telling them they were stupid, sexist, and didn’t make any sense. No response, though.
Did you sign it “Cat & Beard?”
“It’s Not For Women. They’re Not Stupid Enough To Fall For This.”
Idiocracy becoming reality.
I’m soo glad i already don’t like Dr.Pepper. Terrible. Just fuck-awful terrible.
So why is Axe still around then?
Ooo! Looks like the Tonkin billboard ads came down last night!
@Reymont – I haven’t seen those Tonkin billboards! You didn’t happen to take a photo, did you?
@gabriel – I think this only partly has to do with Dr. Pepper being a “no girls” product, but that it’s a “no girls” product inventing some sort of need for girls not to drink soda. Axe is already serving a perceived problem (smelly bodies unattractive to women), rather than creating a new one just for it individual product. Lots of products cater to the “smelly men” market, no other soda sells itself along gender lines.
In the UK, Nestlé makes a candy bar, Yorkie, that says on the wrapper “It’s not for girls”, along with the O in “Yorkie” being a no-women sign. Among other taglines they’ve used, there was “Don’t feed the birds”.
Makes the Dr. Pepper ad seem pretty mild in comparison.
@Sarah: I saw one of the Tonkin billboards from the bus a few weeks back, but didn’t manage to get a photo. Can’t find one online either. But if they want to continue in that vein, and save on their ad budget too, they can just use this next time:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/239218…
@Sarah: Ah-ha, found it! From a link on the Tonkin Twitter feed.
http://yfrog.com/kjjordij
Good find, Todd! Thought I’d looked everywhere.
Oh, puhleeze! While I’m not going to run out and buy a car or whatever simply because a sexy buxom woman is in the advert…I sure don’t mind it at all! Sheesh, the uber-liberals are behaving like conservative Saudis…