Mountain Dew’s puppy monkey baby commercial wasn’t viewers’ favorite Super Bowl 50 commercial, but it’s definitely the most watched on YouTube and probably the most popular Monday morning water-cooler talk. The puppy monkey baby commercial has already reached nearly 10 million views on Mountain Dew’s YouTube channel, not even one full day after airing on CBS.
Puppy monkey baby is doing so well right now because it’s so bad, reports WGN.
“It’s just so darn strange!” said WGN on Sunday evening.
Others might say the puppy monkey baby creature is an odd, freaky, and disturbing combination . People are flocking to YouTube to either watch the Mountain Dew ad for the first time just to see what the fuss is all about or to watch it again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql7uY36-LwA
Is the puppy monkey baby supposed to be cute, or is the puppy monkey baby supposed to be horrifying?
Mountain Dew probably doesn’t even know the answer to that question, but the company made the puppy monkey baby hybrid to promote new flavors of their Kickstart drink, which also just so happens to be a hybrid.
Kickstart has actually been around since 2013, starting with Mountain Dew Kickstart Fruit Punch, a combo soda of fruit flavor, caffeine, and electrolytes.
Caffeine and electrolytes combine to supposedly provide energy for the morning and evening, according to Mountain Dew. Kickstart Fruit Punch was quickly followed by more flavors, including Orange Citrus, Black Cherry, Limeade, Orange Mango, and Strawberry Kiwi. Coconut water was added in 2015.
Mountain Dew introduced Kickstart as a breakfast drink in 2013. According to Fox News, Kickstart was a new option for people who don’t like coffee or tea in the morning. With 5 percent fruit juice, vitamins B and C, and just a jolt of caffeine, Kickstart was promoted as a healthier alternative to other energy drinks.
For 2016, Mountain Dew came out with five new flavors of Kickstart. Blood Orange, Watermelon, Blueberry Pomegranate, and Midnight Grape were introduced in mid-January 2016, with Orange Cranberry due to make its debut sometime in 2016.
During Sunday’s Super Bowl 50, Mountain Dew paid millions of dollars to air a commercial for the new Kickstart flavors, as well as let viewers know they can go to MountainDew.com and create their own Kickstart combination.
Mtn Dew #Kickstart is three awesome things combined: Dew. Juice. Caffeine. Create your own trifecta of awesome now. https://t.co/hhMkauaUvO
— Mountain Dew® (@MountainDew) January 25, 2016
According to Mountain Dew, Kickstart is three awesome things combined, just like their new puppy monkey baby mascot.
“Now you can use the arrows on the right to make your own combination of three awesome things. When you’re done hit the button and share your creation with the world!”
Mountain Dew also used the #PuppyMonkeyBaby hashtag on Twitter in several animated tweets during Super Bowl 50.
“Dab on em’!” #puppymonkeybaby
“Ready for my surprise entrance.” #puppymonkeybaby
Social media users, Super Bowl 50 viewers, and the general public met puppy monkey baby with mixed reactions. Some compared puppy monkey baby to an Ewok, while others said they just weren’t down with #puppymonkeybaby.
But most agreed that puppy monkey baby was disturbing.
Mountain Dew has been teasing Super Bowl 50 fans with hints of their new puppy monkey baby mascot since the end of January when the countdown began for Sunday, February 7. On January 23, Mountain Dew tweeted the first animated graphic of baby legs with a hairy body sitting in a bouncer. The only thing Mountain Dew left out of that picture was the pug head.
“Be patient,” captioned the tweet, with hashtags #Kickstart and #SB50.
Before Super Bowl 50 ended on Sunday, Mountain Dew had spammed Twitter users with over 20 puppy monkey baby tweets. Did Mountain Dew try too hard to sell puppy monkey baby and Kickstart?
Twitter followers were telling Mountain Dew to just stop with the puppy monkey baby tweets before the Super Bowl commercial even aired during the first quarter.
Mountain Dew says they created puppy monkey baby because those are three awesome things that Super Bowl fans love.
The USA Today Super Bowl ad meter live response poll reports that Super Bowl viewers didn’t really love puppy monkey baby as well as other Super Bowl commercials. Puppy monkey baby landed the number 55 spot out of the total 63 Super Bowl 50 commercials, with the Kevin Hart first date commercial taking first place.
[Image via YouTube/Mountain Dew]