Mountain Dew
Analysis Mountain Dew
Background :
Mountain Dew was invented by the Hartman Beverage Company in Knoxville, Tennessee in the late 1940s. The drink became a favorite on the Eastern seaboard, through Kentucky, Tennessee, and eventually spread up through the Great Lakes states (skirting the big cities) and into the Northern Plains of Minnesota and the Dakotas. PepsiCo originally assigned Mountain Dew to the Ogilvy & Mather ad agency. In 1973 PepsiCo assigned the brand to BBDO, its agency of record for Pepsi. The major campaign of the 1970s—“Hello Sunshine”— sought to tie Mountain Dew’s distinctive product characteristics to a set of backcountry recreational images. The yellow-green product and strong citrus flavor are represented over and over by the gleaming sun sparkling in beautiful natural settings. This campaign pulled the Mountain Dew brand into more contemporary terrain, but it was still too rural to get much traction in the suburbs. So in the 1980s, PepsiCo directly targeted suburban teenagers with a new campaign called “Country Cool.” BBDO jettisoned the “country” component of the campaign in 1991 to build an entire campaign around athletic stunts.
Potrait of Situation:
PepsiCo and BBDO managers paid close attention to cultural trends. They were particularly focused on track music and sports trends since these activities were so central to youth culture.
Music. Three musical trends dominated the airwaves in the 1990s. Rap music exploded to become the most popular genre in the country.
Sports. The so-called “alternative sports” took off in the early 1990s. Teen enthusiasts transformed casual hobby activities—mountain biking, skateboarding, paragliding, BMX biking, and in-line skating—into highly technical, creative, and often dangerous sports.
GenX Ethos. During the 1990s, teens and young adults evinced a growing cynicism toward the dominant work-oriented values of the previous generation and toward corporations more generally.
In 1992, senior
Background :
Mountain Dew was invented by the Hartman Beverage Company in Knoxville, Tennessee in the late 1940s. The drink became a favorite on the Eastern seaboard, through Kentucky, Tennessee, and eventually spread up through the Great Lakes states (skirting the big cities) and into the Northern Plains of Minnesota and the Dakotas. PepsiCo originally assigned Mountain Dew to the Ogilvy & Mather ad agency. In 1973 PepsiCo assigned the brand to BBDO, its agency of record for Pepsi. The major campaign of the 1970s—“Hello Sunshine”— sought to tie Mountain Dew’s distinctive product characteristics to a set of backcountry recreational images. The yellow-green product and strong citrus flavor are represented over and over by the gleaming sun sparkling in beautiful natural settings. This campaign pulled the Mountain Dew brand into more contemporary terrain, but it was still too rural to get much traction in the suburbs. So in the 1980s, PepsiCo directly targeted suburban teenagers with a new campaign called “Country Cool.” BBDO jettisoned the “country” component of the campaign in 1991 to build an entire campaign around athletic stunts.
Potrait of Situation:
PepsiCo and BBDO managers paid close attention to cultural trends. They were particularly focused on track music and sports trends since these activities were so central to youth culture.
Music. Three musical trends dominated the airwaves in the 1990s. Rap music exploded to become the most popular genre in the country.
Sports. The so-called “alternative sports” took off in the early 1990s. Teen enthusiasts transformed casual hobby activities—mountain biking, skateboarding, paragliding, BMX biking, and in-line skating—into highly technical, creative, and often dangerous sports.
GenX Ethos. During the 1990s, teens and young adults evinced a growing cynicism toward the dominant work-oriented values of the previous generation and toward corporations more generally.
In 1992, senior