You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
Mountain Dew MDX soda

The Promotions:

The Pitch:
We’ll help you enjoy the night life … this is the sort of night life people are talking about, right?

I want to thank the Avocado’s own Agnew for introducing me to these commercials! Either I’d never seen them before, or (given they’re from the mid-2000’s) if I had seen them, I’d long since forgotten about them. But no more!

Y’know, when marketing soft drinks, most ads focus either on “great taste!” or “so refreshing!” The fact that so many of these sodas are caffeinated doesn’t even come up. Mountain Dew is unique in that regard, for not only making no secret of its caffeine content, but making that its whole pitch: that it’s an energy drink in the form of a soda.

And it’s a strategy that’s worked for them, carving out their own niche in the soda landscape, even becoming the stereotypical “gamer drink” for video game players who want to keep their energy up during marathon gaming sessions.

That said, I don’t know if these ads were the best way to get that message across. Yes, the nocturnal animals and songs about partying convey the idea that you’ll be awake and having fun through the night if you just fill your veins with Mountain Dew. But do these ads really make that sort of night life look appealing?

I mean, you’ve got bats, owls, various ground rodents, and at one point a snake (which I don’t think are actually nocturnal, but whatever). Those aren’t the most traditionally cuddly of animals – more the ones people are likely to be freaked out by. And it’s not like these are cartoony animals hitting the clubs – they’re just hanging out in the woods, which isn’t necessarily where people want to be “all night long”, certainly not when you’ve only got some creepy animals for company.

Plus, everything’s a toxic green color. I know that’s meant to replicate either night vision cameras or the color of Mountain Dew (or both), but it’s still a color I associate with bad things. I mean, when they show the moon turned that shade of green, that seems like the sort of omen that would have Medieval folks panicking about the end of the world.

But … maybe that’s all just me.