Do the Dew and Be Cool

Word count: 396


With the male desire to be seen as people who live on the edge, Mountain Dew has taken advantage of the market and branded themselves as the "extreme" drink.

What started out as a “zero-proof moonshine” has really changed its image over the years. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s Mountain Dew originally catered towards hillbillies. But then in the 1970’s Mountain Dew completely went away from that image to try and get more people to drink the product. They started to try and appeal to the believed drinkers of the product: young, active outdoors people.

With the success of attracting the young outdoors type for two decades, Mountain Dew again tried to expand their audience and in doing so they have created a lifestyle. In the 1990’s Mountain Dew moved from being an outdoors type drink to being an “extreme” drink. In 1995 Mountain Dew sponsored the first-ever X-Games, which is the Olympics for extreme sports like skateboarding and dirt biking.

Mountain Dew has stuck with this image ever since and has become very successful because of it. They try to cater to mostly young men who are not only interested in extreme sports but in just being young and hip.

Mountain Dew has definitely become known as the “extreme” and cool drink. In their ads they usually have younger men doing exciting things and drinking Mountain Dew, saying that if you drink Mountain Dew you are “extreme” and cool.

Mountain Dew has made a good decision in choosing this. Up front the advertisements say that if you drink Mountain Dew you will have a lot of energy (scene by the larges amounts of sugar in the drink but underneath it all Mountain Dew is saying that you can only been cool and extreme if you drink Mountain Dew.

This approach works because men want to be cool no matter what it takes, and if being extreme makes you cool then young men will strive to be extreme and if drinking Mountain Dew make you seem more extreme thy will drink Mountain Dew.

The reason men want to be scene as extreme though it because the cool and extreme guy tends to get the girl, which is what Mountain Dew sells, along with a good time, and it is no secret that young men want two things, fun and girls, thus making their ad effective.