Bryan Schaeffer
Mountain Dew
The Mountain Dew case centers on the decision that the BBDO team and Pepsi executives made in regards to the Super Bowl advertisements to be aired in 2000. The creative team came up with 10 possible scenarios. Since their meeting took place in October (4 months prior to the Super Bowl) they had little time to produce the ads. The 10 concepts were quickly whittled down to 5 and the executives wanted to whittle them down to 3 in which to produce. From those 3, the best 2 would be selected to air at the Super Bowl, but all 3 would be run throughout the year. The 5 advertisements that they whittled down to were Labor of Love, Cheetah, Dew or Die, Mock Opera and Showstopper.
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The ad takes a different twist though as the Dudes are going down a mountain (assuming via snowboard) and stop at a ski lodge to party with some girls. This particular part of the ad really shows the irreverence, daring and fun personality traits that Mountain Dew is trying to convey.
Getting back to the main storyline of the advertisement, the Dew Dudes wind up drinking some Mountain Dew and save the world in the process. It’s ironic that the Dudes are able to have fun and be irreverent yet at the same time save the world. The viewer is pulled into the world of Mountain Dew and is made to think that you can have amazing experiences while accomplishing something noteworthy.
Once again, the downside is that the commercial brings extreme sports into the foray with snowboarding. Putting the brand into the overexposed world of extreme sports might actually harm the brand more than help it. Also, partying and hanging out while the world is being threatened might not be a good thing either.
Overall though, I think the continuation of the Dew Dudes storyline is a good idea for Mountain Dew as it conveys excitement and exhilaration very well. Mountain Dew must be careful though, as it must be extremely creative with these ads to keep the viewers attention on the older advertising storyline of the Dew Dudes.
Mock Opera
The thing that really strikes me about this ad is the song selection of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ The 1992 movie ‘Wayne’s World’ is still very