Dr Pepper
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- The official brand name is "Dr Pepper", not "Dr. Pepper".
| Dr Pepper | |
|---|---|
| Image:Dr Pepper logo.png | |
| Type | "Blend of 23 flavors" |
| Manufacturer | Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (formerly Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.) |
| Country of Origin | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Introduced | 1885 |
| Variants | Diet Dr Pepper; Caffeine-free Dr Pepper; Diet Caffeine-free Dr Pepper; Red Fusion; Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper; Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper; Dr Pepper Berries & Cream; Diet Dr Pepper Berries & Cream |
| Related products | 7 Up, Deja Blue, Sunkist (soft drink), Hawaiian Punch, A&W Root Beer, Diet Rite |
Dr Pepper is a popular 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. There is also a no-calorie version, Diet Dr Pepper, as well as other flavors, such as Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Berries & Cream Dr Pepper, and Diet Berries & Cream Dr Pepper. Afficionados, noting that every current variety of Dr Pepper's initials can be recited as rhymes, sometimes refer to these drinks as DP, DDP, CVDP, DCVDP, BCDP, and DBCDP, respectively.
Contents |
[edit] Overview and history
The drink was first sold in Waco (McLennan County), Texas, in 1885. It was introduced nationally in the United States at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 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 pharmacist Charles Alderton in Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas. To test his new drink, he first offered it to store owner 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. They liked it as well. Other patrons at Morrison's soda fountain soon learned of Alderton's new drink and began ordering a "Waco." Alderton gave the formula to Wade Morrison, the owner of the drug store. 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 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. Contrary to a popular urban legend, Dr Pepper does not and never has contained prune juice. [1] In Texas, Dr Pepper is extremely competitive in the soft drink market, regularly outselling Pepsi and Coca-Cola. [citation needed]There is also a Dr Pepper Museum in downtown Waco, Texas. 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.)
[edit] 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, Inc. 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 up to 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 the popular Dr Pepper without an equivalent replacement (like Pibb Xtra from Coke).
In Canada, 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 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 anti-trust regulations which prevented Coca-Cola from purchasing the rights everywhere. Dr Pepper is also available in Japan and South Korea.
[edit] Dublin Dr Pepper
The oldest Dr Pepper bottling plant is in Dublin, Texas, a small town 80 miles southwest of Fort Worth. In the 1970s, plant owner Bill Kloster (1918 – 1999) refused to convert the plant from cane sugar to less expensive high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Today the plant is still in operation, making Dr Pepper with real cane sugar. Dr Pepper of this nature is called Dublin Dr Pepper. Contractual requirements long limited the plant's distribution range to a 40-mile radius of Dublin, an area encompassing Stephenville, Tolar, Comanche, and Hico; however, sales to individual customers in non-commercial quantities were (and still are) allowed. The popular Texas restaurant Chicken Express boasts serving Dublin Dr Pepper.
Since 2003, Dublin Dr Pepper has expanded their distribution to most of Texas and the product available for direct sales via the Internet. Originally, the drink came in 8 fl. oz. glass bottles. It is also available in 12 fl. oz. cans produced by the Temple Bottling Company in the nearby city of Temple. These cans can be distinguished from normal Dr Pepper by the "Imperial Cane Sugar" labels on the front (also included on the bottles) and a tribute to Bill Kloster on the back. This should not be confused with Dr Pepper from Dublin, Ireland, where the drink is bottled by Coca-Cola Bottlers Ireland.
[edit] Temple Bottling Company
The Temple Bottling Company, like Dublin Dr Pepper, is located in Dr Pepper's home state of Texas. It is the second known bottler to have never switched to HFCS from cane sugar. The bottler is located in Temple, Texas. Their distribution area is limited, much like Dublin's, as most of Texas is supplied by the Cadbury Schweppes Bottling Group (formerly the Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group, which is a conglomerate of independent bottlers bought by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. in the late 90s and early 2000s.)
Temple products can be acquired out of territory via Dublin Dr Pepper's website. The cane sugar Dr Pepper sold by Dublin actually comes from two sources. Dublin only produces glass-bottled Dr Pepper, all the canned product sold is produced by Temple and sold at a premium price.
Dr Pepper enthusiasts (posting to soda pop discussion boards such as BevBoard) have widely expressed their dissatisfaction with the Temple product. It is known to be inconsistent between batches, and many complain that their product is sweetened properly but lacking the proper amount of flavoring syrup. This problem is a result of their manual production process (although it is notable that Dublin uses a hands-on/manual process and does not have this issue), which lacks the consistency of the automated processes used by the large bottlers.
[edit] West Jefferson Dr Pepper
West Jefferson Dr Pepper (WJDP) of West Jefferson, NC has been uncovered by Dr Pepper enthusiasts as the third U.S. bottler to still use cane sugar. The bottler does not actively market this fact, nor does it ship its products outside its contracted territory. WJDP does provide local pickup from its warehouse, and several Web sites resell and ship their products at a premium price.
WJDP is distinguished from Dublin Dr Pepper in that they produce many other products, and all the non-diet varieties use cane sugar. Their line of products includes many other CSAB products such as 7-Up, A&W Root Beer, R.C. Cola, Orange Crush, Sunkist, Nehi, and other lesser-known brands. The bottler also holds one of two remaining franchises from the Mountain Dew Company (pre-Pepsi buyout), making it the only Mountain Dew bottler to still use cane sugar.
[edit] ABTEX Bottling in Abilene Texas
Ab-Tex is one of only four Dr Pepper bottlers in the world using the original recipe, according to the Dr Pepper/Seven-Up corporate office. The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co. has used the original recipe - which contains pure cane sugar - since 1891.
[edit] Name formatting
The period 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.
[edit] Miscellany
The company sells more Dr Pepper in the Roanoke Valley area of Virginia than any other metropolitan area east of the Mississippi River. 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. [2]
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).
[edit] Advertising and product placement
The movie Short Circuit had many advertisements for Dr Pepper contained within it, including a notable slogan ("Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?") used by the main protagonist Johnny 5. Dr Pepper was also featured 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. Godzilla 1985 had new scenes shot in the US, and in one a Dr Pepper machine can be seen very prominently at the end of a hallway. Also, 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. 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 Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Brian and Stewie are in the desert and on the top of a hill they see a Dr Pepper Machine and run for it as they are mighty thirsty, but as the arrive to the machine the find it to be mirage and turns out its an RC Cola Machine. In the movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," Jeff Goldblum can be seen wearing an "I'm a Pepper" shirt while he's being held captive by pirates. 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 prominantly in view.
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, B2K with Smokey Robinson, Anastacia with Cyndi Lauper, Patricia Manterola with Ana Gabriel, and LL Cool J with Run-DMC. The latter pairing featured a brief memorial to Run-DMC turntablist Jam Master Jay, who was fatally shot before the commercial first aired. The campaign also featured individual musicians, notably Garth Brooks and Thalía.
Dr Pepper was introduced to the Australian market in 1997 with TV adverts and low priced half-sized cans sold through supermarkets. Dr Pepper was sold in 1.25 litre plastic bottles until as recently as late 2004 (in some regions). It's only sold rarely in some regions now in Australia.
After withdrawing from most of the Australian market, Dr Pepper arrived without fanfare in New Zealand. As of 2005, Dr Pepper is available in 335ml cans either sold separately or in 6-packs across the country in most supermarkets. It is also available from specialty and convenience stores.
On the December 20, 2000 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.[3]
Dr Pepper commercials were banned in Quebec because of the name as it is considered derogatory to call the Quebecois "peppers".
A failed attempt to distribute Dr Pepper together with Squirt in Greece was made in the late 1980s and since then the only importer is the supermarket chain Thanopoulos.
Several ads for Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper appeared on television in 2005. Both were different in tone, but one stood out. The ad featured 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 Piero Umiliani song "Mah Na Mah Na". The ad singlehandedly pushed the song back into popularity and created net buzz for the ad.
[edit] Dr Pepper slogans
- 1889–1914: "King of Beverages."
- 1920s–1930s: "Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2, and 4 o'clock."
- 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."
- 1997: "Now's the Time. This is the Place. Dr Pepper Is The Taste."
- 2000: "Dr Pepper, It Makes the World Taste Better."
- 2000–?: "Just What The Dr Ordered."
- 2001: "What's the worst that could happen?" (UK and Ireland- Still used to this day[citation needed])
- c. 2001 "Dr Pepper, so misunderstood"
- 2002–2004: "Be You."
- 2002–2005: "Solves All Your Problems." (used in Europe)
- 2005–: "One Taste & You Get It."
- 2006: "Can You Handle The Taste?"[4] (seen in Denmark, Finland and Netherlands)
- 2006: "A delicious blend of 23 flavors." USA
- 2006: "Dr Pepper, nothing better." USA
- 2006: "There's more to it" USA
[edit] Other flavors
- Sugar Free Dr Pepper was introduced in 1974, reformulated in 1990 and renamed Diet Dr Pepper. According to Cadbury-Schweppes, Diet Dr Pepper is the leading non-cola diet soft drink.
- Dr Pepper Red Fusion was available from 2002 - 2004
- 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.
- Dr Pepper Berries & Cream was released in most locations in April 2006. It is the second beverage in Dr Pepper's "Fountain Classics" line of drinks.
- Diet Dr Pepper Berries & Cream was released in most locations in April 2006. It is the second beverage in Dr Pepper's "Fountain Classics" line of drinks.
- 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 the Sprite and Fanta soft drinks, a 'Z' version was introduced, meaning Zero added sugar.
[edit] 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", which attempts to emulate Dr Pepper's flavor.
Sobe Beverages took its ginseng-infused approach with "Mr. Green".
Several other imitations include "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. Bold" and "Dr A+" in Albertsons supermarkets, "Dr. Perky" in Food Lion supermarkets, "Dr Thunder" distributed in Wal-Mart stores, "Dr. B" in H-E-B grocery 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. K" distributed at Costco, Kroger and Fred Meyer locations, "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. M" made by Meijer, "Dr. W" made by Wegmans, "Dr.Publix" made by Publix and Food Club's "Dr. Wow", distributed by Topco. Other generic versions are "Dr. Wells,' "Mr. Ahhhh," "Doc Rocket" (from Trader Joe's) and "Dr. Foots."
Additionally, the version sold at Safeway Stores was famously called "The Skipper" throughout the 1980's. It was renamed as "Dr. Skipper" sometime in the 1990s, and renamed again to "Dr. Select", before the company finally settled on calling the beverage "The Dr." After Safeway's takeover by Morrisons, the drink was renamed "Doctor Pop".
[edit] Legal / Trade History
Dr. Pepper was a frequent role player in the 1990's 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.
[edit] Further reading
- Rodengen, Jeffrey L. (1995). The Legend of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up (hardcover), Write Stuff Syndicate, Inc. ISBN 0-945903-49-9.
[edit] External links
- Dr Pepper official website
- The Highly Unofficial alt.fan.dr-pepper FAQ
- The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company (in Dublin, Texas, U.S.A.)
- Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper Cake - Review the World
- Order Dublin Dr Pepper online
- The Dr Pepper Museum
- Bevnet Review: Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper
- Fake Dr Pepper Roundup, by James "Kibo" Parry
- Bring Back Dr Pepper, an Australian petition aimed at bringing back Dr Pepper
- FTC Statement on Coca-Cola Dr Pepper Merger
- Milwaukee Business Journal article on Dr Pepper, Jerry Jones, and NFL Properties
- Beverage Digest Article describing Pepper flavor drink market
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