I received a few free bottles of Dr. Pepper TEN recently. By now I’m sure you’ve probably seen a commercial for the soda, but just in case you haven’t I’ve embedded one of them down below. Dr. Pepper TEN is basically a diet version of Dr. Pepper that’s marketed towards guys. Oh wait, that’s right, it has ten calories per serving though so it’s not really a “diet” soda since you know, guys apparently don’t like diet soda – at least according to a recent survey.
I know the whole advertising campaign for this new soda isn’t meant to be completely serious, and is meant to be a little over the top, but the fact of the matter is that it just isn’t very original. Guys firing lasers and driving through the jungle in Jeeps? Check! A tagline specifically pointing out that the new soda is for men only? Got it! They even set up a Facebook page featuring their ten commandments or “Man’Ments” as they like to refer to them.
As far as taste goes I’m sorry to report that Dr. Pepper TEN tastes nothing like regular Dr. Pepper, regardless of how much they want to tell you that it does. The funniest thing about Dr. Pepper TEN though is that if guys really drink it because they think it’s so “manly,” then shouldn’t they be manly enough to be OK with drinking a regular diet soda since that’s pretty much what Dr. Pepper TEN is anyway?
In addition at being terrible at coming up with decent marketing campaigns the folks at Dr. Pepper are also apparently pretty bad at math. According to them the soda has ten calories per 8 ounce serving, yet a 20 ounce bottle somehow has only 20 calories instead of 25. If Dr. Pepper TEN is still around a year from now I’ll seriously be surprised.
Christina
December 10, 2011 at 1:55 pm (13 years ago)regarding the calorie counts/labeling – manufacturers are allowed to be up to 20% off in their calorie counts, and a lot of the time, they tend to round down. Hence why the math doesn’t add up correctly. Another interesting fact – the FDA allows any product with less than 5 calories per serving to be labeled as having “0 calories.”
Duck
December 11, 2011 at 8:16 pm (13 years ago)Diet Mountain Dew, according to the label, has 0 calories per serving It also has 10 calories per 20 ounce bottle. That always amuses me (but now I know why, thanks, Christina).
Richard
January 13, 2012 at 1:20 pm (13 years ago)Nick I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. I think it tastes strikingly similar to Original Dr. Pepper and it tastes infinitely better than Diet Dr Pepper.
John Arnold
March 7, 2012 at 5:14 pm (13 years ago)Nick: I love your site and many of your ideas… gonna try the cheesy poof crusted chicken a.s.a.p. As for Dr. Pepper 10… Screw Dr. Pepper/Snapple and anything they try from here on out. I hate saying this, because I grew up drinking Dr. Pepper, but I hope they screw the pooch this next year! Seems the Greedheads at Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group sued the Dublin Dr. Pepper Company, because Dublin Dr. Pepper violated their business agreement. Now legally, Dr. Pepper/Sapple Group is in the ‘right’, but morally they are wrong! Dublin Dr. Pepper was made to cease their production of the original cane sugar recipe, because they offered the product on the internet. The Dublin agreement confined them to a 40 mile radius around Dublin, Texas. The little bottling plant in Dublin, Texas was in no danger of cutting into Big Dr. Pepper’s margin, but greedheads being greedheads ended the production of a 120+ year old Texas icon. I wish nothing but bad things for the Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group. In closing, your site is awesome! I tried DP-10 before their stupidity & my boycott, and I have to agree with you DP-10 is the pits.
Spencer
July 19, 2013 at 4:48 am (11 years ago)I love Dr Pepper but have never tried Dr Pepper 10. I wonder how different it tastes from the original.
Lavender Gooms
January 26, 2014 at 5:43 pm (11 years ago)Dr. Pepper 10 tastes exactly the same as regular Dr. Pepper.