Introducing Mixed Message Mondays

Some of my hybrid job description covers Marketing and Marketing-related work, so I thought it only appropriate that I blog about marketing occasionally.

With that idea in mind, I’m introducing a new feature on GeekFluent: Mixed Message Mondays.  Each Mixed Message Monday (MMM) post will feature an ad or a marketing campaign where the message gets muddied, lost, or even completely negated by the way someone chose to deliver the message.

You can probably think of a couple examples off the top of your head (frighteningly, they’re everywhere), but just in case you can’t, I’m introducing this feature by focusing on one of the finer examples of this mixed messaging.

The example I’m thinking of is Dr. Pepper’s “Always One of a Kind” commercial.  If you haven’t seen it, take a minute and watch it here:

At first, the message seems to work.  Everybody comes together over a shared love of Dr. Pepper.

Except that Dr. Pepper’s message isn’t just about loving their refreshing soft drink.  It’s about expressing yourself as an individual, declaring your uniqueness because you are just as unique as the taste of Dr. Pepper.

How does one express their individualism and uniqueness in the world of Dr. Pepper?  You dress exactly like everyone else, join the crowd, and follow along with them, marching to the same destination.  Yes, you show that you’re “one of a kind” by blending into the crowd.

The one “individual” shown in the commercial is the woman wearing the “I’m a rebel” T-shirt.  You can tell she’s a rebel.  You see, every one else is wearing red T-shirts that say “I’m a <something>” in white letters.  The rebel is doing something completely different.  Her shirt, while using the same font and style, is white with red letters.  Completely different.

The message of uniqueness is totally negated by the way it’s delivered.  The delivery takes what could be a great message and more than mixes it — it gets completely lost along the way.

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