Not for Women

A few days ago, I recently viewed the above commercial (from YouTube) for the first time.  My husband found it to be pretty funny, and I did too when I finally could figure out where I had previously seen the main actor in it.  I particularly enjoyed how he spills his soda all over himself in an attempt to pour it into a glass full of ice while riding through what appears to be a remake of an action scene from… well, take your pick of any recent action movies that take place in a jungle.

What I found to be especially funny, though, is what this soda is and to whom they are marketing it.  Dr. Pepper TEN is a ten-calorie drink being marketed specifically to men.  In fact, the actor even says, “It’s not for women,” at the end of the commercial, just in case we didn’t get that vibe from its other content.  Don’t get me wrong; I think the commercial is pretty clever and all and rightly engineered to appeal to all of the macho, I-don’t-want-to-be-seen-as-girly-so-I-won’t-even-go-near-anything-that-could-be-thought-of-as-girly men out there in the world today.  But my question is this:  does the fact that this drink has ten more calories than zero calorie diet drinks (that apparently are seen as womanly by many?) really make that much of a difference to men out there who won’t drink diet?  I mean, it’s ten calories… just ten.  Doesn’t that still make it a diet drink, and if so, will the marketing alone drive these men to buy it?  This one is just pretty interesting to me.