Blog 8: Gender

The Dr. Pepper 10 advertisement has drawn controversy since its inception. The product’s catch phrase “It’s Not for Women” has caused many feminist organizations to rant about the obvious stereotyping. But beyond this seemingly blatant stereotyping, there are more gender extremes.

First and foremost in the ad is the use of the saying “It’s Not for Women.” This simple phrase is to the point and is seemingly saying that women are not permitted to use this product. The advertisers are more or less not trying to offend women, but encourage men to drink their soda. The saying is meant to be nothing more than a joke, not a saying of hate towards women. In the television advertisement, the main character calls out women and tells them that they should drink their girly diet sodas and watch romantic movies and leave the rest to the men. Dr. Pepper is not trying to sell their soda to women, they are trying to sell their soda to men and they are appealing to humor by putting down women to appease their audience. Aside from this there are bigger issues going here then the simple offensive statement.

The greatest gender problem in this advertisement is the one against men, not against women. Generally men tend to not drink diet drinks because of the very feminine attitude towards them. In recent times companies like Coke and Pepsi have made their diet drinks like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max have exciting labels and dark color schemes to stay away from the idea that their drinks are girly. Dr. Pepper is doing the same thing with this drink. The can itself is gunmetal grey, which goes along with the television advertisement of the men driving around shooting guns while drinking Dr. Pepper 10. Also the use of the word “bold” makes the drink sound more exciting and less bland. There is an emphasis on the world “bold” to show that the drink has more of a punch to it and that it doesn’t have the bland, boring taste that is generally associated with diet drinks. Furthermore, the use of the text style is very blocky and straightforward. Aside from the standard Dr. Pepper logo, the name of the product “10” and the description of the soda on the can as well as in the advertisement are very blocky and military like. Dr. Pepper is trying to stay away from any type of sweeping text or anything that looks too whimsical or feminine.

In the television advertisement, there is a very buff, military like man running through what looks like a jungle and a war zone. He is wearing heavy gear, but his arms are left exposed to show his buff arms. He is dirty and sweaty and is running around and jumping over things as explosions are going off in the distance. He is doing all sorts of absurd things like punching a snake, jumping over boulders, stopping enemies on motorcycles and jumping off a cliff into a dune buggy. This depiction shows that if you drink Dr. Pepper 10 that you will be just like this man. That somehow this soda will allow you to be as strong as he is. But it also shows that if you don’t drink Dr. Pepper 10 that you are not manly, that you are not any better than the women that drink regular diet soda. This causes a manipulation of the way men should be acting and what they should be drinking. It is causing men to worry about whether or not they are being girly.