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One of the worst commercials during the Super Bowl was the one touting Diet Pepsi Max as for "real men" - this is getting ridiculous!

Let's forget the nutrasweet issue for a moment (which is legit) - it's this crap of painting diet sodas and Prius pink.


The ad shows men in a series of violent accidents, including a golf club to the head, a bowling ball dropped on the head and that old favorite, getting hit on the head while sticking one’s head out of a limousine.

After every encounter, the man bravely tells his pals, “I’m good.”

A voice then intones, “Men can take anything, except the taste of diet cola. Until now. Pepsi Max, the first diet cola for men.”

The random acts of violence thing is not only unoriginal, it’s also never really that funny. On a broader level, the ad also begs the question of why the company created Pepsi Max in the first place.

The commercial basically implies that drinking any other diet soda isn’t manly, which seems like kind of a risky move if you want men to keep buying any of your other many diet products. And how exactly is Pepsi Max going to be a more manly diet soda anyway? Is it made with testosterone or something?

Are they going for the repoed Hummer audience? :D

The whole "real men" ad craze illustrates that they're hitting the saturation point in the "real women" market and now they need to redirect some of their "isolate & saturate" marketing blitz toward the guys.

Think about it - billions of dollars are spend advertising products targeting women, and most of them deal with personal appearance. Clear away wrinkles, flatten the tummy, tone the arms, highlight the hair (after healing split ends), and have lashes long enough to function as a sun shield for your nose. And if you don't buy buy buy, you're not attractive/desirable and have no self worth.

For years, men have been targeted mostly with ads for motor vehicles, colognes and body sprays, beer, and fast food. Few deal with personal appearance and many instead are focused on selfish consumption. The pitch is that you deserve this product and wait til the guys see you with this new product, and oh, the ladies will notice, too.

They know that women will use products targeting either male or female buyers, but men will avoid products that are pitched as "for the gals". So to get that extra few percent of male buyers, you put the same slurry in a different can and market it as "cola for men". Hysterical. What's next - atmosphere for "men"?! Sure - A Ziploc bag of ordinary air pitched as "Ionized to cleanse toxins, and 21% oxygen to keep your performance at the max, and 78% nitrogen cuz... well... protein contains nitrogen and so this will really help you with your workout regimen". I'll take 10 bags of it. Sounds like the magic potion I've been waiting for all my life.

Maxx, you continue to crack me up with every post. I love it!! :D

Real men drink coffee without sugar! At least coffee is shown to reduce cancer risk...

Or don't drink anything except tap water. Suitably filtered to remove the chlorine, sodium fluoride, and decaying pipe detritus optional.

Real men drink coffee without sugar!

Yes!!! I take my coffee "Real-Man-style" - tall, strong, bitter, and old but still relatively hot, as though it has been sitting in the pot a bit too long.

None of those "International Coffees" (that help you to recall "that romantic weekend getaway in the Swiss Alps") for us real men. If we want to remember something, we will write it on the back of a baseball card.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I can hear Tim Allen grunting... arrgh arrgh ARRGH!

One of the worst commercials during the Super Bowl was the one touting Diet Pepsi Max as for "real men" - this is getting ridiculous!



Yes. That was an ultra-lame ad.

On to vehicles...interesting that Hyundai was the only car company that even showed up. (Oh, I guess Audi had one ad.)

Real Men don't listen to anyone else's advice about which beverages they should drink or cars they should drive. Or not.

They may not listen to anyone about anything, but that is a separate matter.

I thought it was funny. It was making fun of men, including me. I've finished a hockey game with a broken collar bone ("I'm good", I can swing the stick). My son finished a broom hockey game with a cracked tail bone ("I'm good"). Kinda reminds me why women live longer. And I just don't do diet soda. So yeah, that commercial was for this meathead and his offspring.

Keith

Yes!!! I take my coffee "Real-Man-style" - tall, strong, bitter, and old but still relatively hot, as though it has been sitting in the pot a bit too long.

None of those "International Coffees" (that help you to recall "that romantic weekend getaway in the Swiss Alps") for us real men. If we want to remember something, we will write it on the back of a baseball card.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I can hear Tim Allen grunting... arrgh arrgh ARRGH!

ROFL..what a stitch.....and ya know what, we real women aren't one bit impressed with all that macho crap anyhow.

Surely real men would catch an animal and drink it's blood...........no hang on, thats vampires.

I don't care if my Pepsi contains sugar or not, what I can care about is the taste and diet drinks taste awful, all you can taste is artificial sugar - So normal Pepsi (or Coke, I don't mind which, I'm easy going and can drink both) tastes good.

Of course being from the UK probably means I should spend my day drinking tea, but I prefer coffee (Providing its not instant, thats like drinking Diet Pepsi Maximum tasteless fizzy drink water)

"Real Men" in the 1700 hunted for there own food
"Real Men" in the 1800 expanded the western frounteer
"Real Men" in the 1900 built bridges and fought in the World Wars
"Real Men" in the 2000 are accident prone and drink diet Soda

I think i will SKIP being a "Real Men" this century. not my style

Steve

I have three beliefs about what I drink:

No pop without sugar, no coffee without caffeine, no beer without alcohol. ;)

In each case the essence of the product would be removed. You might as well buy dehydrated water. Of course advertising tries to convince us otherwise.

and here i thought "real men" didn't watch the superbowl for the adds, but instead watched it for the game

(for the record, i drink a bit of mt dew, a lot of coffee, some water, and a beer or two a night)

I have three beliefs about what I drink:

No pop without sugar, no coffee without caffeine, no beer without alcohol. ;)

In each case the essence of the product would be removed. You might as well buy dehydrated water. Of course advertising tries to convince us otherwise.

Oh so you drink Mexican Coke too? Cause all the american ones use corn syrup instead of sugar.

Oh so you drink Mexican Coke too? Cause all the american ones use corn syrup instead of sugar.

Interesting point, I don't drink much pop anymore -- I'm more of an unsweetened tea/coffee guy since I started getting, um, plump, but I'd count fructose as a sugar.

Funny story about that -- My college-aged son was recently on a rant about how corn was in everything we ate, but when he checked our cupboards and read ingredient lists the only corn he found was in tortilla chips, cornmeal, corn syrup, canned corn and catsup. Then we he raised the beef/corn issue, I pointed out that the beef in our freezer was grass fed. He called us "weird." Is that the same as cooking from scratch? :confused: :D

Anyhow I am pretty fond of a couple of flavors of Jarritos (Mexican pop brand, but not Coke) but I only get that as a special treat, so the answer to your question is, yes, sort of.

Everyone's rundown and mockery of the ads almost makes me forget what an over-refereed game it was (just once I'd love to have a SB without controversy! Last year's was so refreshing). And yes, I do drink my coffee "real men" style because sugar makes me crash and milk does not compute.

I can only speak for myself but seriously.... is Danica really the face/assets you want to represent your product with (and I'm still not really sure what they're REALLY selling either -- GoDaddy)? That whole Congressional "reveal" bit just hammered the point even more -- why her? Was Natalie Gulbis or Heather Mitt busy?

Hi All:

___I am with Rich on this one. Pop is pop unless they screwed with it and made it 1 calorie. I asked my wife to bring a single can of Pepsi Max home and she brings back a 12-pack. It was better then most Diet's but it still tastes like medicine to me. I couldn't drink more than two swigs and enough was enough.

___To bad as I would really like to find a low cal Pepsi sub w/ caffeine. I have cut back to just 4-cans in the last two weeks. Unfortunately, 3 of those cans came in the past two nights :( And 4-cans of root beer last week :rolleyes:

___Good Luck

___Wayne

+1 to the sugar-sweetened cola. Much better than HFCS. Fortunately, you can sometimes find Dr Pepper with sugar. (my weakness vs Wayne's pepsi)

What happened to the days where it mattered what you ate and not what you drank...
I honestly don't see the point to diet soda.