Dr. Pepper Feud Gets Boost From Facebook Supporters
The use of Facebook to advance or promote a cause- derisively dubbed “slacktivism” in the larger sense of just talking about problems instead of doing something concrete- sometimes helps an issue go viral and gather it mainstream attention.
This is no Arab Spring, of course, but Facebook is one of the tools being used to defend a small company in what has been termed the “Dr. Pepper feud.” (Something I would have guessed was what happens when you wake up at noon and discover someone drank your last can, a situation which heartily sucks.) You may not have realized that soda (or pop, if you’re from a flyover state) has some strange licensing and bottling quirks inherent to distribution, which makes it so small companies can get quite a foothold in regional markets while being virtually unheard of in other areas.
What you are probably unaware of is the massive shift in the food supply during the 80’s from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS.) While neither is a health food, the latter has been blamed for skyrocketing American obesity rates- if not for its chemical makeup, which is in dispute, definitely for its cheap and easy availability (America is apparently covered in corn.) If you’ve sampled kosher or Mexican Coke, you know that real sugar colas are way tastier than HFCS-sweetened mass stuff.
Which could be how the Dr. Pepper feud started. Texas-based Dublin Dr. Pepper- despite selling less than 1/100th of what nationally distributed Dr. Pepper sells- has been locked in a trademark dilution lawsuit with the company that owns Dr. Pepper and Snapple. Actually, even the president of the big Dr. Pepper admits that the cane sugar variant tastes “amazing”:
“The amazing thing with Dublin is they still have the pure cane sugar. It’s the original formula with Imperial sugar, and their following is unbelievable. Nothing tastes better when it’s ice-cold.”
The following so far has translated to a Facebook group of 5,000 fighting for Dublin Dr. Pepper‘s right to keep on bottling- and using the “Dublin Dr. Pepper” name and label. Which side do you favor in the Dr. Pepper feud? Should Dr. Pepper allow the regional variant, or does it stand to damage their trademark?
