Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Just ‘DEW’ Me
So Mtn Dew just recently released their newest flavor “VOLTAGE,” a flavor ‘charged with Raspberry Citrus and Ginseng,’ and apparently “DEW Drinker Designed.” Being the soda connoisseurs we are, we just had to pick some up and give it a try (it was on sale, too, which didn’t hurt its cause). It kinda tastes like crap. Its like a weird cross between the old Blue Icee and stale cotton candy from the state fair that you forgot bringing home when you were 8 and found the next day in the back of your parents car and ate anyway. It did ignite a bit of a heated discussion between Shanita and Jesse, about what, I don’t know, but we decided it was an adverse effect of too much insanity in one can.
This does, however, bring me to my ‘point.’ First, who lets ‘fans’ design their own type of soda? Has this ever proven to generate a legitimate (and not to mention, actually tolerable) soda? I can’t seem to recall. Every time they (and by ‘they,’ I mean primarily the Pepsi Corp, because they seem to be the only ones who ever do this kinda stuff) attempt anything like this, it always results in an over flavored mesh of things you should probably never simultaneously ingest. Secondly, who are these “Dew Designers.” Was this some sort of online dumping ground for Dew Drinkers to combine their wildest sugar water flavors? Isn’t this the same concept as mixing Kool-Aid packets when you were 7? It seems like the kind of marketing attempt that probably doesn’t ever pan out quite the way they want it to, then they wind up being contractually obligated to at least produce a limited run of some soda flavor they’ll never actually sell enough of to cover the costs of all the marketing money they put behind it, all the while never really accomplishing a goal of connect an audience with the true brand, Mtn Dew, but rather just getting people to participate in a contest to see if they can get some crazy soda flavor actually pushed through.
Either way, this really is just a long rant where I attempt to figure out the mysteries of the Soda Designing world in an effort to understand why we wind up with such things as Mtn Dew’s Code Red, Live Wire, Pitch Black, Baja Blast, Revolution, Supernova and then Pepsi’s ‘Diet Pepsi’ (we all know how crap that is).
Aaron Shekey on December 30th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Let’s not forget all the ridiculous flavors they’ve attempted with Pepsi. Pepsi Blue, Tropical Pepsi (yeah that happened).
But I will argue it can be done successfully. Both Pepsi Twist and Pepsi Lime were incredibly tasty. They simply ramped up the difference between Coke and Pepsi by pushing the lemon/lime vs. the caramel flavors.
I’m reminded of a Simpsons quote…
Vendor: Khlav kalash! Khlav kalash!
Homer: Can you go across the street and get me some pizza?
Vendor: No pizza, only khlav kalash.
Homer: Uhh, all right. I’ll take a small bowl.
Vendor: No bowl. Stick. Stick!
Homer: Blech! That’s just…awful! Now what do you have to rinse that awful taste out of my mouth?
Vendor: Mountain Dew or Crab Juice.
Homer: Yech! Geez! I’ll take a Crab Juice!
Yo Momma! on December 30th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
AMEN!!