Thursday, May 1, 2008

Annoying Dew

OK, this is a personal failing, but I really find this Mountain Dew commercial annoying.



I hate made-up retro. Especially when the real thing is so much less cool. It really tickles my innards.



But it's also about the mismatch between today's positioning of Mountain Dew as a young, hip drink, while my embedded memories from the 1980's have it positioned as the "redneck outdoorsy" drink. "Dewin' It Country Cool" indeed!



Oh, not redneck enough for you?



[EDIT: Hey, I just noticed that professional skateboarder Tony Hawk is in this commercial! If you pause at 0:24, you can clearly see that it's Tony Hawk. But if you go back, he's everywhere (I'm basing that on matching his clothes). He's the very last skater at 0:11 (out of focus). Looks like his legs doing the flip at 0:13, and all the tricks from 0:16 to 0:21. I am SHOCKED to find out that there wasn't really a huge cowboy-skateboarder revolution during the 1980s!]

Oh, still not redneck enough for you?!



That's right, they progressed from serious "hick" positioning (tickling' yer innards)



to extreme indy teen behavior:



No hint of the "mountain hick" origins at all. So I figured I'd tell all eight of you who read this. :-)

3 comments:

  1. You've performed a valuable public service. This is enough to bring down politicians and kill the careers of rising stars. Could it undo the Dew?

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  2. Ha!

    I was idly wondering whether there were actually any cowboy water-skiers. Or cowboy skateboarders. Then I got suspicious. Weren't there a lot of suspiciously cropped moments from the skateboarding commercial? So I went back and took a closer look. When pausing at 0:24, you can clearly see that the skater is Tony Hawk. I'll have to add that info in an edit.

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  3. ok, so i don't consider myself a hick..but I totally enjoyed re-living those old commercials! ha. and now i have that theme song in my head! oh boy...now i better go listen to some old school quarter pounder jingles.

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