Evolution of Dr. Pepper (Visual TOW #4)

 

With simple colors in contrast, the visual text presents an image of a primitive monkey at a supposed “pre-pepper” stage, an evolving monkey at “pepper-discovery” stage, and an evolved monkey, known as humans, at the “post-pepper” stage. The advertisement is one of many created by the Dr.Pepper cooperation, a soft-drink company, in 2012 and can be found in many places on the internet. However, despite its ubiquitous appearance, the advertisement is clearly not aimed at all potential buyers of Dr.Peppers. The very act of associating Dr.Pepper with the principle of evolution in a mutual relationship offends potentially all religious people who look upon evolution with a high critical, if not disdainful, eye, and the context in which the visual text is presented does not necessarily fit its targeted audience.

  Despite the visual text’s controversial means of presenting its message, the message itself is simply and explicit: buy Dr.Pepper because the drink tastes good and assists in the bettering of mankind as a species. Though obviously exaggerated, the advertisement posed by the Dr.Pepper company does catch audiences’ eyes. There is little reason to associate the idea of evolution with the idea of drinking Dr.Pepper, so at first sight many people’s attention will naturally be drawn to this incoherent image. Only under further scrutiny will one read the description “evolution of flavor”, and understand that the evolution is not about organisms but about the flavor of Dr.Pepper.

       In addition, the simply color and imagery usage of the visual text also enhances its clarity and simplicity. Audience will not be bombarded by flowery colors or complex imageries characteristic of other advertisements. All they have to deal with is a simple mixture of red and white and general images of monkeys and human. In doing so, Dr.Pepper cooperation assured that the audience can get the general purpose even with a busy glance so that their impression will likely be “Dr.Pepper is good” instead of “that ad took me so long to comprehend”.

       Despite the visual texts positive attributes, it is probably insufficient in achieving its purpose. The way the text is presented will likely offend many religious people, and since the text is widespread across the internet, there really is no way to limit the range of audience, and therefore the text may likely cause Dr.Pepper to lose as much support as it can gain.