I purposefully didn’t watch the SuperBowl, so maybe everyone’s seen this already, but I just came across this ad for Pepsi Max, which is clearly attempting to be funny, but somehow just makes me feel bad for dudes who so desperately cling to anything Corporate America labels as “manly.”
If you can’t play the video for whatever reason, it basically wanks on about how PM is made of crushed Viking bones, rabid wolverine spittle, pepper spray, and scorpion venom, and packaged in metal salvaged from a nuclear submarine. In other words, it is ROUGH and TOUGH and MANLY, and drinking it may lead to Herculean tasks and a massive increase in the size of your cock.
The commercial is predicated on the idea that 1) diet soda is clearly for girls, and as such will make your dick fall off, and yet that 2) sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, if you live in the States) will make you fat and soft and weak and pussified. The current soda market does not meet your Manly need for a Manly, No-Calorie Soft Drink Alternative. Refreshment, like everything else for dudes, must be Manly. Pepsi Max to the rescue!
I get that there’s more than a little bit of piss-taking going on here, as the actors are hardly super-dudely, and no one seriously thinks PM is made with scorpion venom, but the fact remains that this is a product directly marketed to men, primarily by overtly promoting it as “the first diet cola for men.”
Of course, since the product isn’t made of viking bones, etc. (though I can’t say it isn’t made of corrosive, noxious, and possibly deadly substances), what makes this product “for men” is that it is simply being marketed to men. I saw a similar product in a convenience store in Cardiff, Wales, a number of years ago:
Is your snot MANLY enough? Photo by PhDork.
One must assume that some men are actually buying such things. One must go on assume that such men believe so deeply in the ineffability of gender that things as neutral as soda and tissues must be designed–or at least coded–for masculine or feminine consumption. Of course, those same dudes don’t understand that by buying (into) such claims, they’re really admitting that their gender identity is so unstable it requires relentless assertion and propping-up through through overtly sexist attitudes and behavior, like those displayed, quasi-mockingly, in the commercial.
So is Pepsi Max trying to have it both ways, or what?
This will fail. Dudes who really believe diet soda is a chick drink won’t buy it because it’s STILL DIET SODA. Dudes who want to drink diet soda will continue to drink whatever brand they’re used to buying. Maybe I’m totally wrong though – with the number of commercials on tv marketing products FOR MEN, maybe those tactics really work?
I’m afraid the “hull of a nuclear submarine” bit made me LOL though, as I am unashamed in my love for things full of Seamen.
Sorry.
Pepsi Max now joins sports cars and ribbed condoms in the marketing category: “will make up for your deep-seated fears of genital inadequacy, real or imagined.”
I would be very curious to see the before and after sales data and learn whether this ad campaign actually boosted sales.
Also, I love that Kleenex box. I have never paused to consider whether my snot was feminine or masculine. Mostly I just want it GONE.
Are you sure, Blondegrlz? ‘Cause the product says “Max,” which is not only a totally dudely name–I mean, it ain’t called “Pepsi Percival”–but also tells me that as fizzy beverages go, it is TOTALLY X-TREEM!!!
I’m also curious, since I don’t drink Pepsi and thus haven’t been scoping out store displays: does this replace Diet Pepsi, or is it offered alongside DP, his-n-hers style? And DEAR GOD WHAT ABOUT TRANSGENDER PEPSI DRINKERS?
I think it’s probably offered next to regular Diet Pepsi in the soda aisle. The Coke version of this is Coke Zero, but it was marketed as diet soda that doesn’t taste diet-y as opposed to a MANLY MEN DRINK. I’d say that route worked pretty well, since Mr. BGZ now asks for it at the drivethrough.
My understanding was that “Max” meant “lots more caffeine”, which is why it’s a separate product, so it won’t replace diet.
Hello, I am McLaterson, but it just occurred to me: is Pepsi Max supposed to be new, or am I misunderstanding? It’s been around these parts for years, along w. Diet Pepsi (under the name of Pepsi Light, I think).
@PhDork: Side-by-side, of course. Transgender folks can drink Pepsi One, the other other zero-calorie pepsi.
Fun fact: TAB was introduced when Coke didn’t want to use its brand name on a diet beverage. So they made TAB, marketed it to women, and later on said “duh!” and proceeded to introduce Diet Coke and spend a fortune marketing it as the unisex (manly?) low-calorie coke brand beverage.
The best product “for men” ever is definitely Men’s Pocky. That’s really all I have to say on the subject.
Ah, loxosceles, Pepsi One! Brilliant! I obviously have not been haunting the soft drink aisles enough.
Unpossible, I must admit: I am part of the problem. I have bought Men’s Pocky for my Dude, because we both like to snigger at it. I wonder if it’s made of death cookies and granite chunks, along with all that manly dark chocolate?
Speaking of aggressively rebranding “chick” products for men, have you all seen the Weight Watchers commercials with Chris Berman? They show pictures of meatloaf and stuff with the words “MAN FOOD” superimposed over the top in a huge font. As opposed to WOMAN FOOD like salads?
I think advertising is at the end of it’s rope right now, and American culture in general is trying to have it both ways because of this confused purgatory we’re in. As always, things are changing – women’s role in society has changed quite a bit and I think men are just starting on their own journey to accept that the gender binary doesn’t really exist. But we’re still locked onto these traditional stereotypes which we’ve always used to sell things and make people laugh. So I think what we have these days is a genuine attempt to move into the future but many people are refusing to let go of what sells.
I always think of South Park when I do this rant. They purport to have these moral stories, like how gay people are a-ok, but they spend the whole episode making fun of gay people because it makes people laugh.
I find the Pepsi commercial to be really unfortunate. It IS funny! And I hate to be a party crumb about it, but the funny has the horrible aftertaste of sexism and boy’s club humor. Seems like whenever men make fun of themselves, they still end up in this little club where they couldn’t be happier.
Anyway, my point is yes I think they are trying to have it both ways, which is why this commercial and many others have such confusing and competing messages.
Iris*, I see this mock-it-but-profit-by-it dynamic a lot. It’s in the Pepsi commercial, it’s in those Burger King and now Weight Watchers commercials that do the same “MAN FOOD” thing that whynotsheshaid pointed out. It’s everywhere.
You’re totally right about SP. I remember having conversations about why The 40-Year Old Virgin rubbed me the wrong way: although the dudes who engage in all the gay-bashing-jokes and woman-hating bullshit are clearly meant to be understood as backwards and screwed up compared to Steve Carrell’s character, Apatow had a field day (and made a LOT of money) airing all those fag-and-bitch jokes, and worse, people get to laugh, and then go out and feel good and progressive because they identified with the larger “message” of the piece.
That gender programming is recognized to some degree as silly and laughable is good, but I see these commercials, and I don’t know if we can call this progress, or not.
@whynotshesaid: WOMAN FOOD would be yogurt, of course!
My husband has taken to calling it that, as in “I’m in the woman food aisle, what flavor do you like again?”
In order to play nerdy European board games into the wee hours, my gaming group, frequently benefits from the added ginseng boost of Pepsi Max – or, as we call it, “Pepsi Meth”
So, extra caffiene and ginseng? I guess it is a different product than regular ol’ diet. Although don’t tell Pepsi that it’s being used to fuel women (!) playing European (!!) board games (!!!)–I don’t think any of that is Manly enough.