Marketing
"Dr Pepper Time", according to one promotion, was at 10, 2 and 4 o'clock. During World War II, a syndicated radio program, The 10–2–4 Ranch (later titled 10–2–4 Time), aired in the South and other areas where Dr Pepper was distributed. The show featured the Sons of the Pioneers and Dick Foran. In the 1960s, the tune of the chorus of "The Glow-Worm" was used in ads, with lyrics which ended, "It's Dr Pepper Time!"
In the 1960s, Dr Pepper released the "Charge" ad:
Charge!!
Get Going Again,
With the Dr Pepper Difference.
The "Be a Pepper" series referred to fans of Dr Pepper as "Peppers", and often featured crowd dance scenes with elaborate, over-the-top choreography. One popular ad jingle was:
I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper,
She's a Pepper, we're a Pepper,
Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?
Be a Pepper. Drink Dr Pepper.
This became grist for a number of pop culture references and parodies. One of the first was a July 1981 sketch on the program SCTV, in which an overly-excited injured man (Eugene Levy) extols the work of a "Dr Shekter" (Rick Moranis) who has been treating him. Levy and a group of patients wearing casts and crutches engage in their own elaborate dancing and singing ("Wouldn't you like to see my doctor, too?"), which Shekter first uses as an opportunity to explain his work, and then grows alarmed ("These people should not be dancing!"). In the 1982 sex farce Beach Girls, the slogan became "I'm a popper, he's a popper..." Wreck-Gar parodied the slogan in The Return of Optimus Prime.
After appearing in a commercial, David Naughton had his breakthrough film role as the main character in the John Landis film An American Werewolf in London. Another famous "I'm a Pepper" dancer was Ray Bolger, the actor who played the Scarecrow in the film The Wizard of Oz.
In the early 1960s, Dr Pepper promoted the idea of serving the drink hot with lemon slices in winter. This idea appeared in the film Blast from the Past initially set in the early '60s.
In 1978, Jake Holmes wrote the lyrics to "Be a Pepper". Earlier in the 1970s, Randy Newman wrote another jingle entitled "The Most Original Soft Drink Ever". Barry Manilow performed Jake's jingle in concerts and on albums under the inclusion of "VSM – Very Strange Medley". A TV commercial was also created using the jingle and ran from 1977–1985.
Dr Pepper has also been featured outside of the "I'm a Pepper" motif. An example is in the video game Pikmin 2, where one of the collectible treasures is a Dr Pepper bottle cap (it is labeled as the "Drought Ender"). Also, an empty Dr Pepper bottle is featured in the book Ragweed by Newbery Medal-winning author Avi; the book’s illustrator, Brian Floca, is the son of a Dr Pepper bottler. Several of the classic non-"I'm a Pepper" commercials featured prominent movie stars, one being a television advertisement with Chris Rock as a child enjoying a Dr Pepper.
The 1980s "Out of the Ordinary" advertising campaign involved a series of postapocalyptic commercials featuring a space cowboy and an alien sidekick seeking "something different" from a simple generic cola. The campaign also produced commercials featuring the movie creature Godzilla, where citizens of a Japanese town offered Dr Pepper as a libation. The commercials were prominently featured during the 1986 syndication of The Canned Film Festival, which was sponsored by the Dr Pepper Company.
Outside of the United States, Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford played for a Dr Pepper advert in the UK with the slogan, "Hold out for the out of the ordinary."
Dr Pepper's "Be You" advertising campaign centered on commercials featuring pairs of popular musicians, including LeAnn Rimes with Reba McEntire, Paulina Rubio with Celia Cruz, Thalía with Tito Puente, B2K with Smokey Robinson, Anastacia with Cyndi Lauper, Patricia Manterola with Ana Gabriel, and LL Cool J with Run-D.M.C. The campaign also featured individual musicians, notably Garth Brooks.
Dr Pepper made several appearances in the 1994 Robert Zemeckis major motion picture, Forrest Gump, as it was the beverage of choice for the movie's namesake lead character, played by Tom Hanks. In one of the film's Dr Pepper scenes, Forrest's narrative suggests, "The best part about goin' to the White House was, they had all the food and drink that you wanted ... I must have had me 15 Dr Peppers." When subsequently asked by the President how he felt, Forrest gave an honest answer of "I gotta pee." Although, arguably the film's largest product placement installation, the depiction of Dr Pepper was perhaps not always accurate as, in another scene during the 1972 New Year's Eve celebration which Forrest attends, he drinks a Dr Pepper with a logo that was inconsistent with the timeline of the film.
Dr Pepper was introduced to the Australian market in 1997 with a short-lived TV advertising campaign and low-priced 280-ml cans sold through supermarkets. Dr Pepper was subsequently sold in 1.25-litre plastic bottles alongside other major brands until 2003. Cadbury Schweppes stated the product did not gain acceptance by Australians, whose detractors complained that the drink tasted like "cough syrup" (a tag also given to sarsaparilla). A report on the soft drink industry by IBIS accused Cadbury Schweppes of failing in their marketing of the brand, given its global appeal. It is probable that the major problem with the marketing campaign was in advertising it as "American". The use of the Statue of Liberty moving to Australia and passing cans of Dr Pepper on to two Australian males made its imported (i.e. "non-Australian") status clear.
After withdrawing from the Australian market, Dr Pepper arrived without fanfare in New Zealand. Cans imported from the US are available in some specialty stores in New Zealand and Australia.
On the December 20, 2000, episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman jokingly referred to Dr Pepper as "liquid manure". After a representative of Dr Pepper complained, CBS agreed not to rerun that episode. Letterman repeatedly made assurances on the show that he was joking.
Diet Dr Pepper grew 2.8% in 2001 while regular Dr Pepper dipped 1.7%, according to AC Nielsen data. The company in 2001 is promoting diet with new ads that promise authentic Dr Pepper taste. The message: "Diet Dr Pepper tastes more like the original." The ads spoof examples of new ideas inferior to the originals, including XGA (not PGA) Extreme Golf and a TV show CHimPs (rather than CHiPs).
Several ads for Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper appeared on television in 2005. In one, a young woman on a blind date at a restaurant who sips into the beverage, suddenly makes her date, restaurant patrons, and even a waitress all part of a musical sequence involving The Muppets version of the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà".
One campaign features the Queen song "I Want It All".
On January 1, 2008, the company unveiled a new TV ad campaign featuring the Cheers theme song ("Where Everybody Knows Your Name") performed by Gary Portnoy.
In a 2008 ad, someone was sitting in a college lecture and took a sip of his Dr Pepper. When he stopped drinking, the Dr Pepper can started singing "Flava Licious" (Flava Flav). He covered the can, and when he let go, the can played a Spanish version of the song. He took another sip, and it began playing a Queen version of the song. Everybody in the class (even the teacher and the brainiac) started "rocking out".
In 2008, Dr Pepper in the UK restarted launching its old adverts and slogan, "What's the worst that can happen?" They also started an onpack promotion for free ringtones with up to 20 to collect. A commercial for this included Jesse Eisenberg being forced to be on live TV without his clothes on.
As of 2009, the slogan of the product is "Drink it slow. Doctor's orders". Advertising supporting the slogan has celebrities with famous relations to the word "doctor" (Dr. Dre, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Gene Simmons (writer of the Kiss song "Calling Dr. Love"), et al.) or who played fictional doctors (such as Neil Patrick Harris or Kelsey Grammer) endorsing the beverage. The ads culminate with the celebrity stating, "Trust me. I'm a doctor", followed by the new slogan appearing onscreen with a glass of Dr Pepper.
In 2010, Dr Pepper was part of a marketing/promotional campaign with Marvel Studios to promote the summer blockbuster Iron Man 2; characters from the film adorned cans of Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper, and Dr Pepper Cherry.
In 2011, rapper Pitbull appeared in a commercial with the slogan "Let's have a real good time."
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