Dr. Peper 10... Not for Women?

Over the years, the cola and soda market has been doing a great job of coming out with new products to adapt to the market.  Recently, people have been turning away from sugary drinks such as soda and have been on a sort of health kick, and the soda companies have been adapting accordingly coming out with drinks under the names "zero" and "diet" with lower calorie counts.   However, now there seems to be a new trend of products that are not zero calorie...but have only 10 calories. Dr. Pepper 10 is a soda that claims to be "for men.  This seems completely ridiculous to me that 10 calories would make the difference between a successful product and an unsuccessful product in the eyes of the marketing world.  I asked my boyfriend what the big deal is with the calories and he answered that "diet" sodas are seen as something for women only because it suggests preoccupation with body image.  I was completely unaware of this flaw in the soda market.  Do you think that soda companies do a good job accommodating the beliefs that "diet sodas are unmanly?" What do you think of this 10 calorie idea?

Marketing Turned Mass Murder

This past summer Oslo, Norway was the site of horrible acts of violence done by Anders Behring Breivik.  92 people were killed in the attacks when Breivik bombed government buildings in Oslo and gun massacred a local summer camp for left-wing teenagers. This is a horrible act to commit by any persons standards.  Mass murder and violence never seems to have a point.  However, to Breivik it was completely justifiable.

Breivik admitted to planning these attacks with a motive, but what exactly could that be?  It was simple to him; Marketing.

Breivik is an extreme fundamentalist with hatred for multiculturalism in Europe who desired to create an "idealist" society free of all kinds of cultural diversity and progressive ideas.  In particular Brevik was antifeminism, Islamophobic and ultranationalistic.

His ideas were documented in an extremely detailed manifesto of his beliefs which was then emailed out to citizens of Oslo minutes before the attacks.

When questioned in jail about what his motive was for these horrible acts... He answered that he simply wanted to market his manifesto.

Upon reading this I was shocked.  Firstly because of these events, but also because of the extremely violent measures used for marketing. Breivik hoped that his Manifesto may go viral post-attacks and cause some revolutionary behavior throughout Europe.

It really had never occurred to me in the past that someone could use such tactics to gain attention to a cause or in this case, manifesto.  Sure, riots and attacks have happened in times of revolution and uprising but I had never heard of a situation where many were killed in the hopes of a document going viral and gaining popularity.  September 11, 2001 does come immediately to mind when I think of this situation.  However, the terrorist attacks that day were done to hurt and create extreme tension whereas Breivik used attacks to draw attention to his Manifesto... Not only just to hurt.

What do you think of what happened in Oslo?