Dr. Pepper has just rolled out a new ad campaign aimed to get men drinking their new diet soda. The tag line? "It's not for women." The ad opens with a mock scene from an action movie, a high-speed chase through jungle. The male lead turns to the camera and says "Enjoying the movie ladies? Of course not, cause this is for men."
Now, I understand that this is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but something in my gut clenched tight when the man on the screen to a big swig of Dr. Pepper and then claimed "Keep your romantic comedies and your dainty soda." I'm a woman, and yes, I drink diet soda and I watch romantic comedies. I also watch action flicks and I have been known to claim that the 'goodness' of a movie is directly proportional to the number of explosions and high-speed chases it displays (whether or not these are directly relevant to the plot). So what would that man have done if my answer to his question had been "yes, actually, I LOVE this movie." Does this make me manly? Are women only allowed to live in pink houses, watch romantic comedies, and drink diet soda? I thought we were past this.
Is this a sexist campaign? Yes, definitely. Should we, the feminists of the world "Get the Joke" and shut up, as the Vice President of marketing suggests in this article? (forgive the mediocre writing, this was literally the only article with any substance to it that I could find) I'm not sure if I should be disparagingly amused, or grab my torch and pitchfork.
Wow. Just wow. I haven't drunk much in the way of any kind of soda for a while, but I have had the occasional Diet Dr. Pepper. Guess I will stop doing that.
ReplyDeleteThe only effective response to stuff like this is to boycott the company. So if women are (rightly) offended by this crap, the way to get the company's attention is to stop buying their stuff.