Dr Pepper

For the alcoholic cocktail said to taste the same, see Flaming Dr. Pepper.

Dr Pepper is a caramel-colored, carbonated soft drink marketed in North America by Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB), a unit of Cadbury Schweppes. The headquarters of CSAB are situated in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The ownership of the trademark varies in other countries, although most non-U.S. territories are controlled by Coca-Cola Company. There is also a no-calorie version, Diet Dr Pepper, as well as many other flavors.

Overview and history

The drink was first sold in Waco, Texas, in 1885. It was introduced nationally in the United States at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition as a new kind of cola. Dr. Pepper is not a kind of root beer. The exact date of Dr Pepper's conception is unknown, but the U.S. Patent Office recognizes December 1, 1885 as the first time Dr Pepper was served.

It was formulated by German pharmacist Charles Alderton in Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco.To test his new drink, he first offered it to store owner Wade Morrison, who also found it to his liking. After repeated sample testing by the two, Alderton was ready to offer his new drink to some of the fountain customers. Other patrons at Morrison's soda fountain soon learned of Alderton's new drink and began ordering a "Waco". Alderton gave the formula to Morrison. A popular belief is that the drink was named after Morrison's former employer in Texas, but this has been disputed by the Dr Pepper company itself. They state that before moving to Texas, Morrison lived in Wythe County, Virginia near a Dr. Charles T. Pepper, and may have been close to Pepper's daughter at the time. The name is also reinforced by being an obvious play on "pep", i.e. providing quick energy to its consumer.

Unlike Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Dr Pepper is not marketed as a cola. Dr Pepper's flavor is allegedly derived from a mixture of soda fountain flavors popular when the drink was first devised. A partial list of these flavors can be seen at the bottling plant in Dublin, Texas, although the formula itself (with its twenty-three ingredients) is a closely guarded secret. There is a long-lived urban legend that Dr Pepper contains prune juice. However, according to the manufacturer, prune juice is not and never has been an ingredient of the drink.

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The Dr Pepper Museum, located in Waco, Texas

There is also a Dr Pepper Museum in downtown Waco. It is located in the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building in downtown Waco, and opened to the public in 1991. The Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company building was the first building to be built specifically to bottle Dr Pepper. The building was completed in 1906 and Dr Pepper was bottled there until the 1960s. The museum has three floors of exhibits, a working old-fashioned soda fountain, and a gift store full of Dr Pepper memorabilia. (As the picture shows, the building has differing color bricks, since it was heavily damaged by the Waco Tornado.) Dr Pepper almost became a Coca-Cola brand in the mid-to-late 1980s. Dr Pepper became insolvent in the early 1980s, prompting an investment group to take the company private. Several years later, Coca-Cola attempted to acquire Dr Pepper, but was blocked from doing so by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Around the same time, Seven Up was acquired from Phillip Morris by the same investment company that bailed out Dr Pepper. Upon the failure of the Coca-Cola merger, Dr Pepper and Seven Up merged (creating Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., or DPSU), giving up international branding rights in the process. After the DPSU merger, Coca-Cola obtained most non-U.S. rights to the Dr Pepper name (with PepsiCo taking the Seven Up rights).

Distribution

In the United States, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB) does not have a complete network of bottlers and distributors, so the drink is sometimes bottled under contract by Coca-Cola or Pepsi bottlers. Prior to the initial Cadbury Schweppes investment-turned-buyout, 30% of Dr Pepper/Seven Up products were produced and distributed by Pepsi bottlers, and another 30% by Coca-Cola bottlers. The remaining 40% was produced and distributed by independent bottlers (mainly consisting of pre-Dr Pepper/Seven Up-merger regional bottlers) and the Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group.

Presently, Dr Pepper is mostly reliant on the Cadbury Schweppes Bottling Group (known as Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group until June, 2006) to bottle and distribute its products in 30+ states. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have essentially stopped bottling and distributing CSAB products in favor of in-house alternatives, although regional exceptions can be found. It is notable that Pepsi bottlers have been dropping Dr Pepper without an equivalent replacement. Previously a Pepsi bottler without a Dr Pepper franchise would typically bottle Dr. Wells, and Coke bottlers would make Mr. Pibb.

In Canada and Poland, Cadbury-Schweppes has licensed distribution rights to PepsiCo. In Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Norway, Cadbury-Schweppes owns the trademark and distributes the product. In Spain, Turkey, and Greece it is almost impossible to find as it is usually imported from the United Kingdom in particular supermarkets. In almost all of the other countries of the world, The Coca-Cola Company purchased the trademark from Cadbury-Schweppes and distributes the product. This mixed worldwide ownership of the trademark is due to antitrust regulations which prevented Coca-Cola from purchasing the rights everywhere. Dr Pepper is also available in Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Dr Pepper and high fructose corn syrup

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From left to right: Standard Dr Pepper; Dublin Dr Pepper (front); Dublin Dr Pepper (back); 10-2-4 Dr Pepper made with Imperial Sugar (available at the Waco, TX Dr Pepper museum)

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Glass bottle of Dr Pepper featuring the "classic" logo

Much of the soft drink industry in the United States stopped using sugar in the 1980s, in response to a series of price supports and import quotas introduced beginning in 1982 that increased the price of sugar above the global market price. As a result, most U.S. soft drinks, including Dr Pepper, now use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.

A handful of U.S. bottling plants still use sugar to sweeten Dr Pepper. Perhaps best known is the Dr Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, Texas, the product of which is known as Dublin Dr Pepper. In the 1980s, plant owner Bill Kloster (1918 – 1999) refused to convert the plant to high fructose corn syrup. Since 2003, Dublin Dr Pepper has expanded its distribution to most of Texas and the Internet. Other bottlers still using sugar include Temple Bottling Company, in Temple, Texas, Ab-Tex in Abilene, and West Jefferson Dr Pepper (WJDP) of West Jefferson, NC.

On March 25, 2007, Coca-Cola bottlers in the Dr Pepper Heartland commenced sales of 16 ounce cans of Dr Pepper made with cane sugar and featuring a logo with 'Old Doc' himself on them. This product is scheduled to be a limited time release.

Name formatting

The period (fullstop) after "Dr" was discarded for stylistic and legibility reasons in the 1950s. Dr Pepper's logo was redesigned and the text in this new logo was slanted. The period made "Dr." look like "Di:". After some debate, the period was removed for good (it had been used off and on in previous logos), as it would also help remove any medical connotation with the product.

Miscellany

Dr Pepper is the name of a poker variant, whereby in addition to jokers, the cards 10, 2, and 4 are wild cards (taken from a previous advertising slogan which encouraged customers to drink a Dr Pepper at 10, 2, and 4 o'clock).

The company sells more Dr Pepper in the Roanoke Valley area of Virginia than any other metropolitan area east of the Mississippi River. Roanoke is approximately 90 miles east of the hometown of Dr Charles T. Pepper, which is Rural Retreat, Virginia. In the past, the city has been named the "Dr Pepper Capital of the World," and broke world records for its mass consumption of Dr Pepper in the late 1950s. [5] Dr Pepper donated a portion of its sales revenue in the Roanoke area to finance restoration of a circa-1950s neon Dr Pepper sign, which has the company's "10, 2, 4" logo from the time, in downtown Roanoke.

Advertising and product placement

Arguably the most famous of Dr Pepper's advertising campaigns was their "Be a Pepper" series. These commercials referred to fans of Dr Pepper as "Peppers," and often featured crowd dance scenes with elaborate, over-the-top choreography. One popular ad included the jingle:

“

I'm a Pepper, He's a Pepper She's a Pepper, We're a pepper Wouldn't You Like to be a Pepper, Too? Be a Pepper~ Drink Dr Pepper

”

This became grist for a number of pop culture references and parodies. One of the first was a sketch on the program SCTV, in which an overly-excited injured man (Eugene Levy) extols the work of a "Dr. Shekter" (Rick Moranis) who's been treating him. Levy and a group of patients wearing casts and crutches engage in their own elaborate dancing and singing (Wouldn't you like to have my doctor, too?), all to the alarm of Shekter (These people should not be dancing!).

Perhaps the most familiar face of these "I'm a Pepper" commercials, David Naughton, later had his breakthrough film role as the main character in the John Landis film An American Werewolf in London.

In 1986, the movie Short Circuit included many advertisements for Dr Pepper, including the old slogan ("Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?") used by the main protagonist Johnny 5. In the "Hate Plague" story arc in the Transformers animated series, the character Wreck-Gar infects Rodimus Prime with the line "I'm a Pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?" In the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Jeff Goldblum's character can be seen wearing an "I'm A Pepper" shirt while he's being held captive by pirates. Also, in the 1981 film, The Cannonball Run, actor Dom DeLuise (as Victor Prinzim) can be seen singing the "I'm a Pepper" jingle while running out of a Mini-Mart.

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12-ounce Dr Pepper can sporting the new logo

Dr Pepper has also been featured outside of the "I'm a Pepper" motif:

• The original title of the Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' was 'Dr Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Whether this was a reference to the soft drink is unknown, but a Dr Pepper bottle can be seen in the film Let It Be.
• The beverage was involved in cross-promotion with several Marvel Comics movies, including X-Men 2, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2. Likewise, characters from the respective movies appeared on Dr Pepper cans around the time of each film's release.
• The Return of Godzilla had new scenes shot in the U.S., and in one a Dr Pepper machine can be seen very prominently at the end of a hallway. There were also Godzilla Dr Pepper commercials.
• Dr Pepper is featured in many of Tom Hanks' movies, most notably in Forrest Gump and Cast Away. Bottles of Dr Pepper are also shown on a table behind the characters in That Thing You Do! when they are examining their new Play-Tone record.
• An empty Dr Pepper bottle is featured in the book Ragweed by Newbery Award-winning author Avi; the book’s illustrator, Brian Floca, is the son of a Dr Pepper bottler.
• In the video game Pikmin 2, one of the collectable treasures is a Dr Pepper bottle's cap. It is labeled as the "Drought Ender".
• In the movie Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Brian and Stewie are in the desert and see a Dr Pepper Machine on the top of a hill. They are disappointed to discover it to be mirage (it's actually an R.C. Cola machine).
• A small packet of Dr Pepper is used to locate the leak in the spaceship in the film Mission to Mars, with scenes of a Dr Pepper can floating prominently in view.
• In the movie S.W.A.T., Dr Pepper is featured throughout the film, including dialogue with the brand's name.
• In the movie Blast from the Past, in which the character played by Christopher Walken has his wife (played by Sissy Spacek) prepare hot Dr Pepper for him. There was an actual campaign in the early 1960's to serve Dr. Pepper hot with slices of lemon as a winter drink. The police investigators at the beginning of the film can be seen reeling in disgust at his having it prepared hot.
• In the museum, on the second floor, classic commercials for Dr Pepper can be viewed. Chris Rock is shown in one of these, as a child enjoying a Dr Pepper.

Dr Pepper's "Be You" advertising campaign centered around commercials featuring pairs of popular musicians, including LeAnn Rimes with Reba McEntire, Paulina Rubio with Celia Cruz, Thalía with Tito Puente, B2K with Smokey Robinson, Anastacia with Cyndi Lauper, Patricia Manterola with Ana Gabriel, and LL Cool J with Run-D.M.C. The campaign also featured individual musicians, notably Garth Brooks.

Dr Pepper was introduced to the Australian market in 1997 with a short-lived TV advertising campaign and low priced 280 ml cans sold through supermarkets. Dr Pepper was subsequently sold in 1.25 litre plastic bottles alongside other major brands until 2003. Cadbury Schweppes stated that the product did not gain acceptance by Australians, whose detractors complained that the drink tasted like "cough syrup" (a tag also given to Sarsaparilla). A report on the soft drink industry by IBIS accused Cadbury Schweppes of failing in their marketing of the brand, given its global appeal.

After withdrawing from the Australian market, Dr Pepper arrived without fanfare in New Zealand. Cans imported from the U.S. are available in some specialty stores in New Zealand and Australia.

On the 2000-12-20 episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman jokingly referred to Dr Pepper as "liquid manure". After a representative of Dr Pepper complained, CBS agreed not to rerun the Dec. 20 episode. Letterman repeatedly made assurances on the show that he was joking.

Several ads for Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper appeared on television in 2005. In one, a young woman on a blind date at a restaurant who sips into the beverage, suddenly making her date, restaurant patrons, and even a waitress all part of a musical sequence involving The Muppets version of the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà".

Recently, a new campaign was introduced, which features the Queen song "I Want It All".

Dr Pepper slogans

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1980 print advertisement

• 1889–1914: "King of Beverages."
• 1920s–1930s: "Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2, and 4 o'clock."
• 1940s: "Good For Life."
• 1950s: "The Friendly Pepper Upper."
• 1960s: "America's Most Misunderstood Soft Drink."
• 1970s: "The Most Original Soft Drink Ever."
• 1977–1985: "Be a Pepper.", "Wouldn't you like to Be a Pepper too?"
• 1986–1997: "Hold Out For the Out of the Ordinary."
• c. 1997: "It's Dr Pepper Flavour, Silly!" Australia
• 1997: "Now's the Time. This is the Place. Dr Pepper Is The Taste."
• 2000: "Dr Pepper, It Makes the World Taste Better."
• 2000–Present: "Just What The Dr Ordered."
• c. 2001 "Dr Pepper, so misunderstood"
• 2002–2004: "Be You."
• 2002–Present: "Solves All Your Problems." (used in Europe)
• 2003 "Dr Pepper, to try it, is to love it" (used in the UK)
• 2004–Present "Dr Pepper, what's the worst that could happen?" (used in the UK)
• 2005–Present: "One Taste & You Get It."
• 2006: "Can You Handle The Taste?" (seen in Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Poland)
• 2006: "Authentic blend of 23 flavors." USA, Canada
• 2006: "Dr Pepper,makes the world go round."
• 2006: "Dr Pepper, nothing better." USA
• 2006: "The Dr knows the right touch." (used in Europe)
• 2006: "There's more to it." USA
• c. 2006: "Get Berried in Cream" USA
• 2007: "I Want It All." USA

Other flavors

• Dietetic Dr Pepper was introduced in 1962 (cans) and 1963 (bottles). Sales were slow partly due to the public misconception that the drink was for diabetics, and the company soon renamed the product Diet Dr Pepper. The product was renamed Sugar Free Dr Pepper in May 1971, and in 1991 it was reformulated to use aspartame and renamed Diet Dr Pepper. According to Cadbury Schweppes, Diet Dr Pepper is a top 10 soft drink in the United States, and the leading non-cola diet soft drink. Its slogan involves it tasting like the original compared to other soft drinks and their diet counterparts.

• Dr Pepper Red Fusion was available from 2002 - 2004, only in the US

• Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper was released in some areas on October 15, 2004. The beverage tastes similar to Dr Pepper but has stronger cherry and vanilla flavors added. Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper is the first drink in the planned "Fountain Classics" line of beverages from Dr Pepper, a range of drinks designed to taste similar to popular soda fountain drinks from the 1950s. It is now available in all areas of the U.S.

• Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, which has zero calories, is also available. It was the pilot and was on the shelves before the non-diet version. The Diet version of the drink is now a pilot in Canada. Although disappearing for a short period of time, it has resurfaced in Canada, with the new logo design, however this product is not sold outside of North America.

• Dr Pepper Berries & Cream, and its diet version, were released in most US locations in April 2006. It is the second beverage in Dr Pepper's "Fountain Classics" line of drinks.

• Caffeine Free Dr Pepper, and its diet version, are new products, without caffeine.

• United Kingdom's version of Dr Pepper has a different taste, very similar to Coca-Cola Cherry and is manufactured with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Along with Sprite and Fanta soft drinks, a 'Zero' version was introduced, meaning no added sugar.

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Cherry Vanilla and Berries and Cream versions

Other Products

• Dr Pepper has a successful line of Jelly Beans made with the Jelly Belly company.

• Dr Pepper recently joined forces with Vita Food Products to produce Dr Pepper Sweet & Kickin' BBQ Sauce Dr Pepper More than Mesquite Marinade.

Imitations

Many imitations of Dr Pepper exist and can often be identified by the use of "Dr" or "Mr" in their name. One of the most well-known competitors is Pibb Xtra, formerly called "Mr PiBB". It is made by The Coca-Cola Company. SoBe Beverages took its ginseng-infused approach with "Mr. Green".

Several other imitations include:

• "Dr. Path" sold in PathMark Supermarkets.
• "Country Doctor" sold in Fareway Stores.
• "Dr. Topper" Rocky Top, Clover Valley, sold in Dollar General stores.
• "Dr. Dazzle" distributed by ALDI Inc.
• "Dr. Slice", "Dr. Faygo" marketed by Faygo Family Beverages Inc.
• "Dr. Smooth" marketed by President's Choice
• "Dr. Hy-Top" marketed by Federated Group
• "Dr. Chek" in Winn-Dixie supermarkets
• "Dr. IGA" in IGA supermarkets
• "Dr. Perky" in Food Lion supermarkets
• "Dr. Thunder" distributed in Wal-Mart stores
• "Dr. Bash" distributed by Bashas' stores
• "Dr. Bob" sold in Stop & Shop Supermarkets
• "Dr. Weis" Distributed by Weis Markets, and "Dr. Celeste" marketed by The Pantry, Inc.
• "Dr. Spice" distributed in Target Stores
• "Dr. Hy-Vee" distributed at Hy-Vee grocery stores
• "Pepper, MD" sold in Path Right stores
• "Dr. Fresh" distributed at Marsh supermarkets
• "Dr. Rocket" distributed at K-mart stores
• "Dr. Radical", made by Adirondack Beverage Company
• "Dr. Shaw's", made by Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc.
• "Dr. Wild", made by J G Meyer First Choice
• "Dr. Publix" made by Publix
• "Dr. Wow", distributed by Topco.
• "Dr. Riffic", distributed by Eckerd
• "Dr. Bold" and "Dr A+" in Albertsons supermarkets
• "Dr. B" in H-E-B grocery stores
• "Dr. K" distributed at Costco, Kroger and Fred Meyer locations
• "Dr. M" made by Meijer,
• "Dr. U" distributed by United Supermarkets
• "Dr. W" distributed by Wegmans
• Dr. Goodguy" distributed by Kalil
• "Dr. Shasta" made by Shasta (soft drink)
• "Dr. Salt" distributed at Albert Heijn,
• "Pibb Xtra" sold by Coca-Cola
• "Dr. Skipper" distributed by Safeway grocery stores
• "Dr.Perky" sold in Food Lion stores
• "Dr. Pop" sold in Save A Lot grocery stores and Morrisons stores in the UK (although this is a different product
• "Dr. Phizz" sold in Schnucks Supermarkets
• "Dr. Zeppa" sold in Store 24 convenience stores
• "Dr Zip" sold in Sobeys supermarkets
• "Dr. Nehi" sold by Nehi/Royal Crown Cola
• "Dr Western" sold in Oregon
• "Dr. Becker" made by the Blue Sky Beverage Company

Other generic versions are "Dr. Wells," "Mr. Ahhhh," "Doc Rocket" (from Trader Joe's) and "Dr. Foots."

The version sold at Safeway Stores was called "The Skipper" throughout the 1980s. Sometime in the 1990s it was renamed "Dr. Skipper", then "Dr. Select", and then "The Dr." After Safeway (UK)'s takeover by Morrisons, its version was renamed "Dr Pop".

Legal/trade history

Dr Pepper was a frequent role player in the 1990s antitrust history of the United States. As part of these activities, economists and the courts have even weighed in with the opinion that Dr Pepper is a "Pepper" flavored drink and not a "Cola." In 1995, the FTC blocked a merger between The Coca-Cola Company and Dr Pepper on grounds that included concerns about a monopoly of the "Pepper" flavor category of soft drinks. In 1996, Dr Pepper was involved in an antitrust case involving Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys, NFL Properties, Nike, and other commercial interests active at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. In 1998, the "Pepper" flavor soda category was a major part of the analysis supporting an antitrust case between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Sources

• Rodengen, Jeffrey L. (1995). The Legend of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up. Write Stuff Syndicate, Inc. ISBN 0-945903-49-9.

• "History of Dr Pepper". Retrieved 2007-07-04.

External links

• Dr Pepper official website
• Dr Pepper on MySpace
• The Highly Unofficial alt.fan.dr-pepper FAQ
• The Dr Pepper Museum
• FTC Statement on Coca-Cola Dr Pepper Merger
• The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company (in Dublin, Texas, U.S.A.)
• Temple Bottling Company, in Temple, Texas
• Not quite what the Dr Ordered