MARKETING AND BUSINESS
Dr. Pepper worst marketing campaigns
That made people angry
Dr. Pepper is a carbonated soft drink created by the pharmacist Charles Alderton in 1880 in Waco, Texas. It was served for the first time around 1885. Now, Dr. Pepper is a popular drink and has 23 flavors.
Over the years Dr. Pepper created controversy among people. Consumers were wondering if it is good for health because some of the ingredients have been known to be connected to several health problems, such as cancer.
Even if it’s not the healthiest drink, it’s still a popular one, with more than 530 million sales worldwide. With all that money, mistakes can still be made.
In 2012 Dr. Pepper made a huge mistake that made people angry and it was talked about globally. Dr. Pepper posted on Facebook a photo of their new campaign “Evolution of flavor”.
The campaign’s idea started from the theory of human evolution and Dr. Pepper took a funny approach and illustrated a monkey/ ape in the first stage- Pre Pepper, in the middle stage, Pepper Discovery, where the ape discovered a Dr. Pepper can on a rock. In the final stage, Post Pepper, it’s an evolved and modern human drinking a can of Dr. Pepper.
Under the monkeys, it’s the name of the campaign “Evolution of flavor” and the slogan “A One of a Kind schematic brought to you by Dr. Pepper.”
There will always be 2 sides. In this case too. Some loved the idea and took it as a funny and good campaign and others took it the hard way, as an offense to all Christians and their beliefs.
On Facebook started a debate between people that were fans and the ones that hated it. Many Christians felt that their religion and belief were insulted and stopped supporting the brand. There were some Christians that took it as a joke and didn’t feel offended.
In the end, bad publicity is still publicity. The post made over 140,000 likes and over 900 comments.
This is not the only Dr. Pepper campaign that made consumers angry.
In 2011 Dr. Pepper launch a campaign “It’s not for Women” for their new diet soft drink, a soda with just 10 calories. The diet drinks are mainly drunk by women and the brand tried to attract new men consumers to the diet drink market.
In didn’t go as planned, because it was considered sexist. People started making petitions online to stop the campaign. Jim Trebilcock, Dr. Pepper executive vice president of marketing, said that “women get the joke”, but it’s not sure what the joke is. He understood why people saw it at sexism. The slogan was later changed.
These are 2 of the worst marketing decision Dr. Pepper made. What do you think? Is “Evolution of flavor” an offensive campaign? Did Dr. Pepper think that just because it said “It’s not for women” men will start drinking it? Or it was just a campaign made for attention?
