You might remember the quiet unassuming soda Dr. Pepper from its recent foray into potentially-parody toxic masculinity with its Dr Pepper Ten campaign. It appears the company has discovered that controversy is really good for its business, so its marketers came up with a new brilliant plan: make an ad that references evolution.
“What? But that’s not controversial at all! Tons of products have obliquely mentioned evolution in a mild and tangential sort of way!” you say. And you might be right, if the intended market wasn’t heavily populated by antiscience creationists on a hair trigger.
The ad in question:
Do you remember how many creationists lined up for hours to get a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A, ostensibly in defense of “freedom of speech”? What do you want to bet that there’s a heavy overlap between those folks, defending a company’s religiously-motivated bigotry against gays, and the creationists now apparently boycotting this ad?
Granted, the news of this “boycott” comes entirely from the Facebook thread linked in the first paragraph, and has yet to manifest itself in an actual boycott that anyone notices. I’d wait until any such movement picks up any steam before we start calling evolution-denying anti-gay bigots hypocrites. For now, they’re mostly all just tired old tropes like “This Advertisement is wrong. If man would have evolved from a ape there would be no apes.”
(But only on that point. You’re still free to call out their hypocrisies in deciding that humans are specially created by an infallible being and somehow that infallible being created gays that way and totally hates them.)
30 comments
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desoto
September 14, 2012 at 8:51 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You can wait, but they have proven time and again that they are hypocrites!
pipenta
September 14, 2012 at 8:53 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Do I have to drink prune cola now to show my cred?
Rodney Nelson
September 14, 2012 at 8:58 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t boycott Dr. Pepper because of their advertising. I boycott it because it tastes nasty.
Jason Thibeault
September 14, 2012 at 9:18 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rodney: hear hear. I can’t stand the stuff.
cethis
September 14, 2012 at 9:22 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I do have to credit their ad department for being bold. As for the soda itself. Dr. Pepper tastes like Dr. Pepper, and that’s not good.
Tony •King of the Hellmouth•
September 14, 2012 at 9:25 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dr. Pepper and Goldschlager taste fabulous together. The cinammon liquor changes the icky soda enough that it becomes not only drinkable, but >gasp> GOOD.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain
September 14, 2012 at 9:26 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dr Pepper makes you… walk?
So that was how Beibei did it…
Rodney Nelson
September 14, 2012 at 9:45 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony #6
I’ll take your word for it. Since I’m not fond of Goldschlager I won’t try the experiment.
geekadoo
September 14, 2012 at 10:15 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t drink Dr. Pepper, even though Diet Dr. Pepper used to be my drink of choice. Quit after the he-man woman-haters ads. After Now, the kids in my family will tell anyone that will listen not to drink it. 6-year-old boy: “If you drink Dr. Pepper, you think boys are better than girls, and that’s not true.” 10-year-old girl: “I’m watching you. You’d better not be drinking Dr. Pepper.”
bionicfreefall
September 14, 2012 at 11:45 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m a little suprised that no one has mentioned Dr. Pepper’s “I’m a FreeThinker” t-shirt. I saw it on one of their tv commercials and was a little suprised. It seems that their ad agency might be home to someone rational. http://drpepper.spreadshirt.com/-I12058465
Nepenthe
September 15, 2012 at 12:52 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aaaargh! Not the evolutionary “progress” meme! Please no! Kill it dead! It has saturated our culture to the point where even my professors talk about “more evolved” organisms/taxa. *gnaws own leg off*
silomowbray
September 15, 2012 at 1:50 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Dr. Pepper isn’t my pop of choice, but I think it’s delicious. So screw all you haters! The Dr. is made of Win!
(If you want nasty, I dare you to try Tahiti Treat. Jesus fuck that is one hideous drink.)
Tony •King of the Hellmouth•
September 15, 2012 at 3:44 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
silomowbray says:
I love that you call it “pop”.
I live in the southeast United States, and they call everything ‘Coke’ or ‘Pepsi’. It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s so damned aggravating. If I want Coke, I say Coke. If I want a Mello Yello, that’s what I ask for. If I’m trying to talk about carbonated, flavored beverages, I say soda. It’s more inclusive. So is pop (isn’t that more a northern US thing?).
I wonder what soda pop Jesus would consume…Mr. Pibb? Crush? Grapico?
Tony •King of the Hellmouth•
September 15, 2012 at 3:47 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nepenthe:
You know you’re supposed to let one of the entitled menz do that right? And they’re supposed to get permission slips signed in triplicate.
ibbica
September 15, 2012 at 4:05 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I always thought “pop” for “soft drinks” (how widespread is *that* term for “carbonated beverage without alcohol”, btw?) was mainly a Canadian thing, at least within North America; “soda” I’ve hard it from folks from some of the northern states, and always makes me think they’re talking about “club soda” or “soda water”… “Soda pop”? How delightfully quaint! ;)
I do agree that the whole “call everything Coke or Pepsi” is ridiculous :P
I always thought Dr. Pepper was supposed to be a root beer, but apparently not. That may be why I too think it’s gross, though… I always expect a root beer flavour and am disappointed every time :( (And “Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper”? WTH? Ewwwwww…)
To answer your question: Jesus would drink Coke.
Nick Gotts (formerly KG)
September 15, 2012 at 4:59 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The message of the ad would seem to be that Dr. Pepper cures kyphosis, so I’m not sure they shouldn’t be sued for false advertising :-p
Not only is that graphic meme horribly overused, the intermediate stages would never have been viable: the real intermediates must actually have used two distinct gaits, one quadrupedal, the other bipedal and more or less fully upright.
Rodney Nelson
September 15, 2012 at 8:06 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
silomowbray #12
There are other nasty sodas besides Dr. Pepper. I have had exactly one sip of Moxie and didn’t swallow it.
elainehampton
September 15, 2012 at 2:28 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought Jeebus turned water into Grape Nehi, walked on it (without washing his feet first), and then told everyone it was wine. They actually believed him.
Ew.
silomowbray
September 15, 2012 at 3:32 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony and ibbica might enjoy this:
Pop vs. Soda Map of the U.S. (and a chunk of Canada).
I’m a Western Canadian, and we call it “pop.” I, too, don’t get calling it “Coke.” I’d be very confused in the South.
Our host and my fellow countryman Jason is, I believe, in Eastern Canada, so instead of “pop” he probably uses a French epithet.
*flees*
Jason Thibeault
September 15, 2012 at 3:43 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, I picked up “soda” from my various Minnesotan friends, but otherwise I always said “pop”.
Or “maudit pop”, I suppose.
Rodney Nelson
September 15, 2012 at 8:55 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Years ago I was in Oklahoma. At a diner I ordered Coke and the waitress asked what kind of coke I wanted. After a minute or two of talking past each other, we determined that what I called soda she called coke. I ended up with Pepsi because they didn’t have Coke.
Jason Thibeault
September 15, 2012 at 8:57 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve had a similar conversation but with generic terms. “What kind of drink would you like?” “Cola.” “Is Pepsi okay?”
I’m always very very sorely tempted to answer “Is Pepsi cola-flavored?” But I usually just say “yes, that’s fine.”
Apparently Not Erin
September 15, 2012 at 9:05 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The answer to that is actually, “Do you think I would have used the generic name if the brand mattered to me?”
Jason Thibeault
September 15, 2012 at 9:06 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I always demand name-brand Erin though.
Apparently Not Erin
September 15, 2012 at 9:24 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
According to your impostercide, I am not Erin despite using the name for decades. I had to do a password recovery to make sure no one registered my email while I wasn’t looking. Perhaps I should change my name to ErinTM.
And for the record: I’ve always referred to sugary carbonated beverages as pop and I’m also from Eastern Canada (but Jason already knew that).
Jason Thibeault
September 15, 2012 at 9:27 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Erin: if the password reset doesn’t work, let me know via email and I can look into it.
Apparently Not Erin
September 16, 2012 at 1:06 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The email wasn’t the problem – it hasn’t got an account attached to it. It started working again when I changed my name so someone, somewhere has got to be registered as Erin.
Nepenthe
September 16, 2012 at 6:42 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Tony
Whoops! Sorry to have forgotten! In my defense, it was an emergency and no men were handy. Even all my pets are female.
theobromine
September 17, 2012 at 5:23 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Funny thing: Way back before the turn of the century, in the halcyon days of Usenet, one of the regulars on the talk.origins newsgroup use the handle “Dr Pepper”. His trademark was that he ended every post with the statement, “Now please state the theory of creationism”.
JohnnieCanuck
September 20, 2012 at 12:42 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
theo,
Did anyone ever answer “Goddit”? I’m guessing yes.