Brand: Mountain Dew Code Red (Pepsico)
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here
Target: Male Dew Drinkers
Rating: ***
Reviewer: David

Description:
Four people play the carnival game that has you shooting water into a clown’s mouth to inflate and burst a balloon on his head. A teen/young 20’s looking guy pops his balloon first. “That’s a winner” the bored, red-headed attendant says. The guy looks at the shelf and sees a 20-oz bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red nestled between the legs of a stuffed animal. “Oh - I’ll take the Code Red,” he says sounding slightly surprised. “That’s not a prize, it’s mine,” the attendant says flatly. “But it’s with the prizes,” the guy insists. “Not happening!” the attendant says as he scoots off the booth and reaches for a water gun. “I’m not lookin’ for trouble,” the guy drawls as he steps away from his friend with another water gun. “Well, you found it,” says the attendant as the screen shot moves from a rectangular box to widescreen format and we hear the familiar whistle from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” in the background. As the two men draw their water pistols we see a stream of water going into the guys mouth and then the attendants. Their heads begin to inflate to comical size. Then in a moment the attendants head bursts with a wash of water and it is over. We see the guy’s hand grab the Mountain Dew Code Red. He drinks a long swig and then we see the attendant as he says, “Well, that got ugly,” as water runs out of his ears. The spot ends with a graphic of the dynamic Mountain Dew Code Red graphic.

What Works:
This is a funny and visually compelling spot that has enough storyline appeal to be watched several times. The inflating heads are a very clever device and the spot plays it well enough to be surprising, entertaining and memorable. The branding in this spot is also good as the Code Red bottle is introduced early in the spot and makes several appearances before the logo shot at the end. The unexpected twist in this spot (when the heads of the two guys expand balloon-like as they are being shot full of water) makes this execution very memorable. The use of the spaghetti western music and widescreen-effect perfectly serves up this satiric spot.

What Doesn’t:
Although the branding is good in this spot, the brand positioning is hard to unravel. Code Red seems to be differentiating itself based upon the take-no-prisoners attitude of the brand users, personified in this spot by both the game-playing guy and the game booth attendant. However it is not at all clear if this brand user attitude is specific enough and sufficiently differentiated to be ownable. This advertising blog believes that this spot may create a lot of buzz of the type where the spot’s story is told (or the visual effect is described) but the brand gets lost. Not because the branding is bad, but because the branding is not tied to user imagery that is undeniably owned by Mountain Dew Code Red. This may improve as the campaign progresses, but for the moment it impairs the spots ability to build the Code Red brand.

Branding Bottom Line:
Soda is fine, but that head-inflating trick rocks.

Brand: Diet Mountain Dew
Execution: TV & Print
Link: Click Here
Target: Calorie-conscious Dew Drinkers
Reviewer: David
Rating: **** (Print)/** (TV)

Description:
A new campaign breaking in both Television and Print. The TV ad shows a volunteer being lowered into shark-infested waters as a camera crew and divers in a shark cage watch. The voiceover intones, “In these shark-infested waters, a team of scientists and one brave volunteer are about to find the answer to an important question: Is Diet Mountain Dew as much of a thrill as Regular Mountain Dew?” The wetsuit-clad volunteer starts splashing the surface of the water to attract the shark. Suddenly, the volunteer catches hold of the Great White Shark’s dorsal fin and begins to ride the shark like a dolphin as he makes spectacular aerial flips. “The results were clear. Diet Mountain Dew is ALL THE DEW with none of the calories.” The spot shifts to a close shot on the Dew bottle and the tagline, “How Dew Does Diet - With Great New Taste.” This spot will first run this weekend during NASCAR.

The Print ads all present a play on expectations with the common tagline “Don’t Be Fooled By Names.” They are backed in Mountain Dew Green and feature photos by Sasha Waldman of four characters whose appearance belies their names. One is a nerd named “Slick,” another a hairless cat named “Fluffy,” a third a sumo wrestler named, “Tiny” and a fourth an injured dog named, ‘Lucky’ (see above.) These ads will first appear in March issues of Sports Illustrated and FHM Magazine.

What Works:
Print: This series of pool-outs has a nicely restrained feeling which will help arrest the attention in the over-the-top world of guy magazines. The framed portraits use humor to illustrate a point - all is not what it seems to be. We are not sure if the linkage to the brand is entirely there, but we do think the ads will engage people. They have the iconic look that might put them into the same league with the Altoid print advertising which is instantly identifiable to the faithful.

TV: This spot is over-the-top, which certainly fits with the Mountain Dew brand positioning. The spectacular (and hopefully fake) shots of a man riding a Great White Shark grab the attention. BBDO is smart to introduce the brand in the middle of the spot and keep reinforcing it all the way through the remainder of the action.

What Doesn’t:
This advertising blog is a fan of consistency and campaigns that build upon each other. While the Diet Mountain Dew print campaign is a model of consistency, we don’t see many linkages between the restrained print and the over-the-top television advertising. Of course it is true that different styles suit different mediums better. It would be hard to imagine a TV spot featuring a hairless cat named “Fluffy” breaking through during a NASCAR commercial break. Yet somehow even though the underlying message is the same (Diet Dew is really good just like Regular Mountain Dew), we’re not sure that the two parts of this campaign will reinforce each other because of the dramatically different execution style.

We also wonder about targeting for this campaign. The message seems to be pitched at current Mountain Dew drinkers (’Diet Dew is just as good as the original’ is not much of a message if you don’t like Mountain Dew). Are there dual users of diet and regular drinks? Or is Mountain Dew intentionally cannabalizing on its business - perhaps because it is worried about calorie concerns hurting its business in the long run? We would welcome a comment by the brand or agency to this post to clarify. Diet Mountain Dew is a bit of an odd duck. The very idea of a diet version of a radical drink which has used the massive adrenaline boost of its sugar/caffeine mix to great effect is an oxymoron. So it may not be surprising that finding a natural target audience for the drink is challenging as well.

Branding Bottom Line:
We can’t wait to see the Shark-Riding event at the Summer Olympics. How did they miss that in Sydney?