Mountain Dew - Assignment Example

The history of mountain dew dates back to 1940. Mountain Dew was born in the hills of Tennessee in 1948; Mountain Dew was originally invented by two brothers, Barney and Ally Hartman at their bottling plant, for use as a mixer with whiskey. Mountain Dew is actually slanged for "moonshine," and the early bottles were even adorned with sketches of a character called Willy the Hillbilly!

The first images of the logo were Willy the Hillbilly was printed in 1950 and was sold in the market. The moonshine theme (the original source for the name Mountain Dew) didn’t stick, but the hillbilly did become popular. Mountain Dew was trademarked and labeled, it included a cartoon hillbilly taken from the creators’ original label design, who would eventually grow to become the drink’s official mascot for years to come. Later named ‘Gran’Pappy’, he soon became a popular icon in bars, and appeared on several Mountain Dew products and merchandise, lasting for several more decades.

In the 1950’s the Tip Corporation, the owners of the Mountain Dew brand, distributed the drink all over the Eastern Seaboard. Several bottlers manufactured and distributed Dew, in two different sizes costing 5 and 15 cents respectively, complete with the then-famous label featuring Gran’Pappy the Hillbilly shooting at a man running out of an outhouse.

The first franchise's offer was given to “Tricity Beverage” of Johnson City in 1954. Bill Bridgforth was instrumental in making Mountain Dew a perfect drink for its customers. 

Drowning despite Dew’s strong sales, Tip approached Pepsi-Cola in the early 1960s to sell the Mountain Dew brand. However, the product was in direct competition with Pepsi’s own lemon-flavored drink- Teem. So, the owners went back to the drawing board- they reduced the amount of carbonation and added more sugar and caffeine, as well as mixed in enough orange juice to remove it from the “lemon-lime soda” category. Thus, Mountain Dew as we know it was born, and Pepsi bought Dew’s new brew on September 2nd, 1964.

The revamping of Mountain Dew as a brand was awarded to BBDO, a global advertising agency. The Ad campaigns were targeted at the youth segment that projected Mountain Dew as one of the best brands to stick with.

Mountain Dew quickly became Pepsi’s second best-selling drink (next to Pepsi itself), and a new advertising campaign featured ‘Willy “Gran’Pappy” Hillbilly’, along with all his yokel kin, encouraging Dew drinkers to “Yahoo- Drink Mountain Dew! It’ll tickle yer innards!” By the early 70s, however, it was clear that Willy the Hillbilly had run out of steam, so Mountain Dew’s image was again redesigned, this time appealing to the young outdoors type. The bottles were changed yet again to reflect this new attitude; and the public got their first glimpse at the now-famous “wavy” logo, which would grace bottles of Mountain Dew for decades to come. 

Pepsi has come up with low sugar and fat-content beverage called “Diet Mountain Dew”. A Diet Dew was released in 1988, but that was nothing compared to the Dew Revolution of the 1990s. It started in 1993 when Pepsi first unveiled its new tagline for Mountain Dew: “Do the Dew”. Commercials were produced featuring the ‘Dew Dudes’, including the award-winning “Been There, Done That” Ad campaign. Mountain Dew was poised to take its place in a new generation of branding by sponsoring the first-ever X-Games in 1995. The youth culture embraced the addictive yellow-green potion p. By 195 the sales generated by Mountain Dew were 3 billion dollars.4

In 2001, the first-ever Mountain Dew spin-off burst onto the scene- Mountain Dew Code: Red. Combining classic Dew with a rush of cherry flavor’, it quickly became a hot-seller in cold cases across America, alongside its older brother. Amp, a Dew-based energy drink, soon followed, and a year later Diet Code: Red was released. The summer of 2003 saw the arrival of the legendary Mountain Dew LiveWire- an orange-twisted Dew variant. It was a hit in its first limited summer release, and returned the next year- along with Mountain Dew: Baja Blast, a lime-flavored Dew available only at Taco Bell; and Pitch Black, a Halloween-themed Dew, dark purple and grape-flavored, which also saw a short lifespan.

Today, Mountain Dew is at the height of its popularity, enjoying its status as the ultimate liquid of choice for teens and the #1 source of caffeine for college students the world over. As a staple of today’s youth culture and a mainstay in the stomachs of people across the globe, Mountain Dew remains the king of the carbonated soft drinks.

As of 2007, Mountain Dew was the fourth-best-selling carbonated soft drink in the United States, behind only Coca-Cola Classic, Pepsi-Cola, and Diet Coke. Diet Mountain Dew ranked ninth in sales in the same year.

In October 2008, it was announced that Pepsi would be redesigning their logo and re-branding many of their products. Mountain Dew will be renamed "Mtn Dew"