Soft-Drink Giant Wants Consumers to Be ‘Impressed’

via nytimes.com

“McKayla the not-impressed Olympian” sounds as if it might be the title of a song or a book. But as most Americans with access to a TV set, computer, smartphone or mobile device know, it is a reference to McKayla Maroney, an American gymnast at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Ms. Maroney’s facial expression — a scowling kind of glare, or a glaring kind of scowl — when she learned she won a silver medal, rather than a gold, after a vault performance on Aug. 5 was captured in a photograph by Brian Snyder of Reuters that captured the popular imagination.

Soon, the idea that “McKayla is not impressed” turned up as a Tumblr pageand became an Internet meme. Ms. Maroney even offered a version of the expression when she and the rest of the United States 2012 gymnastics team met President Obama in the White House — and the president joined in.

This week, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group will proclaim that Ms. Maroney has finally found something that impresses her: five new soft drinks that are entries in the lower-calorie category of the carbonated-beverage market along with Dr Pepper Ten, which the company brought out in 2011.

The “Ten” in the name refers to the fact that each 12-ounce serving of the soft drink contains 10 calories. Dr Pepper Snapple is adding 10-calorie versions of five additional brands: 7Up, A&W, Canada Dry, RC and Sunkist.

Ms. Maroney is to appear in New York on Thursday in a section of Penn Station that Dr Pepper Snapple will fancifully rename “Ten Station” for the day. The promotional event will be focused on one new variety, 7Up Ten — which, when said fast, kind of sounds like a sports score.

Although planning is not completed, a tentative schedule calls for Ms. Maroney to meet the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those meeting her will be encouraged to sample 7Up Ten and take photographs in which they share their “impressed” looks with her.

The goal of the promotional event is to “leverage the meme” and “turn it on its head, that we’re finally getting her impressed,” said Regan Ebert, senior vice president for marketing at Dr Pepper Snapple in Plano, Tex.

“What we’re hoping is the fact she’s finally impressed” will “get digital buzz across the Internet,” Ms. Ebert said.

Ms. Ebert was asked if she was familiar with what happened when Clara Peller, who became famous in 1984 for being unimpressed when she asked “Where’s the beef?” in commercials for Wendy’s, declared a year later that she had “found it” in a commercial for Prego Plus spaghetti sauce. Wendy’s fired Ms. Peller and her ad career ended.

Ms. Ebert said she recalled the incident and described the agreement with Ms. Maroney as different.

Other marketers “have approached” Ms. Maroney and asked her to declare herself impressed with their brands, Ms. Ebert said, “but she agreed to do it with us, exclusively for us,” because “she enjoys the products.”

Ms. Maroney’s fee is not being disclosed.

Ms. Maroney will not appear in an advertising campaign for the five new soft drinks, Ms. Ebert said, which is scheduled to begin next month. The campaign, by McGarryBowen, part of the Dentsu Network unit of Dentsu, will include commercials, coupons and digital ads.

A social media and digital agency in New York named Code and Theory will work with Dr Pepper Snapple on the promotional event on Thursday. The company also works with Ketchum, the public relations agency owned by the Omnicom Group.

Analysts at brokerage firms who follow the soft-drink industry estimate that Dr Pepper Snapple plans to spend more than $30 million nationally to expand the Ten concept to include the additional products.