While advertisers may subtlety cater to a certain gender, Dr. Pepper’s recent ad campaign brings targeted gender marketing to a new level.
The company, marketing their new diet soda, created exclusive advertisements. The slogan reads: “Dr. Pepper 10. It’s not for women.”
When I first saw this advertisement, I was amazed.
According to USA Today, there is also a Facebook group devoted to the new soda, but I wouldn’t know because only men are allowed to see it.
Dr. Pepper Snapple groups claims they tested the ad in six different markets before rolling it out nationally and that they thought women “got the joke.” Sure, I got the joke; I just didn’t think it was very funny.
I couldn’t believe that a major company would be so blatant in its sexism as to claim that its soda wasn’t for half of the population.
Automobile companies, for example, make truck commercials that are clearly masculine in nature and aimed at men, but they don’t blatantly say, “Hey ladies, these trucks aren’t for you.”
After a few weeks of passive-aggressive grumbling every time I passed a soda machine, I started critiquing the advertisements I was bombarded with every day, and realized that I may have been too quick to judge poor Dr. Pepper.
While this new ad campaign seems sexist on the surface level, it isn’t nearly as offensive or damaging as some other advertising that is slightly more subliminal but far more degrading to women.
Carl’s Junior for example had a recent television ad showing a woman in a bikini on a beach “seductively” eating a hamburger.
Almost every cleaning product commercial seems to have a male making the mess and a female cleaning it up.
Beer commercials make it seem as though the only way a man can drink a beer is if a young, attractive woman brings it to him.
There is a social stereotype that diet soda is a “woman thing” and Dr. Pepper wanted to combat that stereotype by claiming that their new product was actually only for men.
I may not love their blatant approach, but I am far more OK with being jokingly told I can’t drink soda than being objectified and told that it’s women’s jobs to look pretty and serve men.
On their own, these individual advertisements are innocent enough, but combined they create a skewed picture of society.
According to a recent article in the Journal of Business Ethics, “Advertisements will continue to shape societal values regarding the appropriate roles (both genders) undertake in society.”
We must think critically about the messages advertisements are sending and decide with our dollars whether or not we want to support that message.
Reach the columnist at Emily.Muller@asu.edu
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