Mountain Dew Case Study

What is the ad campaign of Mountain Dew that created awareness to its consumers? What is the impact of the Mountain Dew Ad campaign to its prospective customers? How did Pepsi Cola Company respond to the growing threat of non-carbonated soft drinks, especially energy drinks and tea? ANSWERS: In 1992, senior management at PepsiCo sensed an opportunity to increase business on Diet Mountain Dew. Diet Mountain {draw:frame} Dew's distribution was limited mostly to the rural regions where the brand was strongest, even though regular Dew was now a national brand. Diet Mountain Dew performed very well on product tests versus other diet drinks in the category because the heavy citrus flavor did a better job of masking the undesirable taste of the artificial sweetener. So PepsiCo allocated money for incremental advertising to support an effort to expand Diet Mountain Dew distribution. Bill Bruce, then a junior copywriter working on several brands, was assigned to the project. Bruce came up with the "Do Diet Dew" tag line (which soon evolved into "Do the Dew" to support the entire brand) and several new ideas to embellish what BBDO had begun with the Get Vertical campaign. The first breakthrough ad of the new campaign, Done That, features a hair-raising shot of a guy jumping off the edge of a cliff to take a free-fall toward the narrow canyon's river bottom, set to throbbing grunge music. This was the first ad to feature the "Dew Dudes"—four young guys who are witnessing the daredevil stunts presented in the ad and commenting on them. Done That became {draw:frame} a huge hit, capturing the country's imagination. The ad was widely parodied and the phrase "been there, done that" entered the vernacular. For 1994 and 1995, BBDO produced three carbon-copy "pool-outs"1 of Done That, including a spot called Mt. Everest. By 1995, after two years of these ads, consumer interest in the creative was fading fast. According to Jeff Mordos, if