Signifier: Mountain Dew and Russell Westbrook.
Signified: It shows how interesting life can be when you just get a little energy, a kick start to your day. Mountain Dew is its own company but is a part of the bigger parent company Pepsi. This ad centers around one of the young, exciting, talented, premiere players in the NBA especially at point guard.
Image: The commercial starts with Westbrook appearing in someone’s house and says “let’s get this night” started handing out Mountain Dew Kick start. It zooms in on him drinking one and the screen goes weird in a psychedelic way it then has him in a different wacky shirt, one that he usually would wear off the court. One of the kids in the commercial drinks it as well having the same thing happen to the screen with the same result. He has a shirt that Westbrook would like and then the other two kids do it but then after the weird thing they appear in one big shirt sharing it. Westbrook doesn’t approve of that.
Denotation: This is an ad for an energy drink made by a soft drink company. Pepsi-Mountain Dew wanted to venture into a different market than just making soft drinks. They decided to make an energy drink through Mountain Dew to have an edge in the Coke VS Pepsi wars. They also decided to use something that stands out in all of their commercials before they put Westbrook in them. They were really out of this world in how weird and crazy they were.
Connotation: Mountain Dew was its own company till Pepsi bought them out trying again to have an edge in the soft drink world by being a caffeinated citrus drink, which also comes in other flavors. PepsiCo products consummated 1 billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $66 billion in net revenue in 2013, with other products like, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana. PepsiCo’s product includes 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. Kickstart has been around for two years, with Mountain Dew trying to make money in the energy drink competing with Red Bull, Monster, and Five Hour Energy. They have ones they suggest you take in the morning if you need energy then, the fruit punch and orange flavor. They added pineapple orange mango and strawberry kiwi, that fuse an energizing blast of DEW with real fruit juice, to go with the final two you should take at night, cherry and limeade. Earlier this year they signed Westbrook to a multiyear partnership for his creative personality on and off the basketball court, marking the original flavor’s first national partnership with a pro basketball player, and will tip off an entirely new extension of the Mountain Dew® Kickstart™ “It All Starts with a Kick” campaign. It grew more than 55 percent in its second year on the market with annual retail sales of nearly $300 million. Coke has its own version called Vault that I had to look up since I had no idea it existed since it came out in 2005 and died in 2011 to compete with Mountain Dew. Pepsi still wasn’t the first at making drink ideas. The Dr. Pepper Company always had a drink called Sun Drop which has orange juice in it but it wasn’t as famous their other drinks so we tend to forget about it, but it came first with the same color and taste levels of Mountain Dew. Upon further research Coke had a drink they came out with but they were third in the citrus caffeinated drinks coming out with Mello Yellow in the late 70’s, that’s what Vault replaced and then when Vault ended Mello Yellow came back. PepsiCo had an energy drink called AMP Energy which became its own company. As of 2009, Amp Energy was the number four energy drink brand in the U.S. in terms of overall retail sales but it doesn’t have the brand name Mountain Dew has. Coke has 10 kinds of energy drinks(Urge, Tab Energy, Relentless, NOS, Mother, Lift Plus, energy brands by Glacéau, Full Throttle, Coca-Cola Blak, and Burn) but they don’t beat out AMP, Red Bull Monster, Rockstar, AMPM, and Five Hour Energy, while Dr. Pepper has one called Venom.
Icon: Mountain dew has a famous logo with the mountains no matter where the words are placed and color scheme even though it’s usually green and red. People know immediately that it is Mountain Dew and what kind of drink it is. Some people don’t know they are company owned by Pepsi like Spire is owned by Coke which helps them form their own identity. They did a good job partnerng up with an All-star and releasing the commercial during his amazing tearing through the league with triple doubles and trying to win the MVP. So Westbrook has the high profile through the league even though he plays in Oklahoma City and has a more famous teammate in Kevin Durant. Westbrook also has a Jordan brand deal, a clothing and eyeglasses line sold at Barney’s New York, and an underwear deal with Kings & Jaxs.
Syntagmatic Analysis: Mountain Dew had a successful product that was different from the rest. PepsiCo looking for an edge anywhere to beat Coke and the 7UP/A&W/DR.Pepper/Sunkist company so they bought Mountain Dew, and it has been used ever since to have a leg up in competition with this company only. So every time Coke comes out with something Pepsi comes out with its own version of it, being last to the game with a lemon lime soft drink. The one thing Coke doesn’t have over Pepsi is a caffeinated citrus drink that comes in many flavors. Now PepsiCo and Mountain Dew have crossed over completely to the energy drink game taking it a step further. Besides from making caffeinated drinks they launched a successful energy drink. They currently are on top of the soft drink world of making energy drinks.
Ideology: The reasons behind these outrageous style commercials are to be different from the rest by making a mainstream energy drink by a famous soft drink company. They also decided to take a player who is good and famous but he is out with his personality and style. If you notice he has a very interesting style in his clothing and glasses so they played that perfectly when it comes to the ad campaign and commercials. Mountain Dew doesn’t have an official deal with the NBA and can’t use its logos; the focus is on Westbrook and his off-the-court innovating as a fashion icon pushing boundaries
Codes: These ads make you go want to try this drink to have a fun time or very interesting odd time. You also might already like Mountain Dew so might as well try all of their products. Also if you’re a fan of Russell Westbrook for his basketball skill or fashion you might want to drink what he endorses like Lebron James with Sprite.
Jingoism: It targets mostly young adult males who need a different kind of energy by a familiar soft drink company. It tries to tap into the demographic of people who don’t drink soft drinks but drink energy drinks. It is also trying to get in the world of advertisement with an already famous athlete who has his own brand and other endorsements, and also NBA fans and fans of Mountain Dew who like or could like both.