Dr Pepper Ads Want You to Sip, Not Guzzle

Facing flagging sales, 123-year-old Dr Pepper is capitalizing on “scientific” research that suggests it tastes better when you drink it slowly, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dr Pepper’s marketers are launching a campaign using “fake doctors to deliver this quasi science,” says an ad exec. Basketballer Dr J and Dr Frasier Crane of Frasier fame are touting the research in new commercials, saying "Slower is better: Trust me I'm a doctor."

The challenge for Dr Pepper’s makers was “how do you find new ways to talk about old brands?" says a marketing rep. The key was the market research. In 2006, interviewers found that those who drank Dr Pepper slowly liked it better and drank more. "This might just be weird enough to work. ... It's such an odd claim," says the ad exec.
(More Dr Pepper stories.)