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John Thomas Douros

Professor Arini

English 101

17 October 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey01ZlAoYes

Doritos and Mountain Dew

This commercial took place during the 2018 Super Bowl game. The commercial uses two

well-known products, Doritos are spicy chips and Mountain Dew is a cold soda beverage. The

company uses two well-known actors, Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage, to make a funny

video promoting both products. PepsiCo used Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage to help

showcase both products in hopes to get people to buy more Doritos and Mountain Dew. For

example, “If you look at the purchase habits of consumers, Doritos and Mountain Dew are

purchased together in more of the same baskets than peanut butter and jelly” (StienBerg). The

Doritos and Mountain Dew commercial showcased in the 2018 Super Bowl was set to get

consumers interested trying both products either independently or together.

When looking at the Dorito section of the commercial, Peter Dinklage takes a bite of his

spicy Dorito. While walking, the fire emerges as it follows Peter Dinklage through the room as

he is rapping the song. This creates a visual effect of how hot and spicy these Dorito chips are.

Immediately after Peter Dinklage’s Spicy Dorito section, the consumers are then immediately

taken to a close up of Morgan Freeman standing in the same room as Peter Dinklage. Morgan

Freeman is holding a Bottle of Mountain Dew Ice. Morgan Freeman then takes a small sip of his

Mountain Dew Ice, and everything gets frosty indicating a visual effect of how cool and

refreshing this drink is. As Morgan walks down the hall, viewers can see his breath and
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everything is freezing showing how cool and refreshing this drink is. This creates a great

comparison between the two products. When you are eating Spicy Doritos and your mouth is on

fire, a great way to cool off is to grab yourself a refreshing cool Mountain Dew Ice beverage.

The mood of the commercial is humorous, because the company knows showing a funny

conflict between fire and ice. In this case Spicy Doritos and Cold Mountain Dew Ice are

delicious to have when the products are tried to together. For example, “People will pay more

attention to a humorous commercial than a factual or serious one, opening themselves up to be

influenced” (C.). When the company has entertaining commercials that are funny and interesting

to watch, the consumers will be in engaged from skipping the advertisements, especially if there

are famous people in them. Another focus was using famous rap songs from very prominent

rappers, again trying to appeal to the consumer to get them to watch the commercial. When the

audience look at the background of the commercial, views can see multiple settings showcasing

the fire and ice conflict.

The soundtrack that was used in the commercial for Doritos and Mountain Dew

was from two well-known rap artists. The music gives the commercial a fast pace. The songs

used are “Look at Me Now” by Busta Rhymes and “Get Your Freak On” by Missy Elliot. The

commercial used these songs because the company knows people may recognize these artists;

this, again, will keep people interested in watching the commercial and purchasing products.

Peter Dinklage lip-synced Busta Rhymes’ song in his Spicy Dorito portion of the video, while

Morgan Freeman lip-synced the Missy Elliot song in the Mountain Dew Ice portion.

The products that are being promoted make it tempting to people who have not

tried them to go out and purchase them together and try them for themselves. This commercial is

targeted at people who may have never tried the combo together, or who may have tried them
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and are addicted to having Doritos and Mountain Dew. Companies are trying to interest all ages

and demographics by bringing as many factors to the commercial as they can.

The advertisers are trying to get their message out about how Doritos and Mountain Dew

are a great combination to try together, because they want people to buy their products. The

advertiser wanted to have both of the products on the same commercial because it would get

more people to buy the products together. In the commercial, there was an unspoken message

which was when you eat hot Doritos it will burn the consumers mouth. Then put out the heat

with an icy cold drink, which in this case was Spicy Doritos and Mountain Dew ice. The

advertisers created this commercial because they wanted to sell the audience both products.

The commercial does appeal pathos, because they are trying to get focus on people who

are addicted or love eating the Spicy Doritos, and taking down the heat with Mountain Dew Ice.

They wanted to entertain people by making the Doritos Mountain Dew commercial for people to

watch and to think about buying the products. The commercial did have logos, because they

were demonstrating how Mountain Dew ice can counteract the blazing hot Doritos. There was no

ethos, because they were not talking about anything that was to inform in the source.
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Works Cited

C., Victoria. “Humor In Advertising.” www.experience.com. June 29, 2017. Web. Accessed 22

October 2018. https://www.experience.com/advice/careers/professions/humor-in-

advertising/

SteinBerg, Brian. “PepsiCo’s Super Bowl Commercial for Doritos, Mountain Dew is Two Ads in

“One.” variety.com. January 22, 2018. Web. Accessed 22 October 2018.

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/super-bowl-commercial-doritos-mountain-dew-pepsi-

1202672618/