Mountain Dew (stylized as Mtn Dew in the United States) is a carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman and was first marketed in Marion, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee and Johnson City, Tennessee with the slogan "Ya-Hoo! Mountain Dew. It'll tickle yore innards." A revised formula was created by Bill Bridgforth in 1958. The Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired by the Pepsi-Cola company in 1964, at which point distribution expanded more widely across the United States and Canada.
Between the 1940s and 1980s, there was just one variety of Mountain Dew, which was citrus-flavored and caffeinated. Diet Mountain Dew was introduced in 1988, followed by Mountain Dew Red, which was introduced and subsequently discontinued in 1988. In 2001, a cherry flavor called Code Red debuted. This product line extension trend has continued, with expansion into specialty, limited time production, region-specific, and retailer-specific (Taco Bell, 7-Eleven) variations of Mountain Dew.
Production was first extended to the UK in 1996, but was phased out in 1998. A similar but very different-tasting product has been sold in the UK under the name "Mountain Dew Energy" since 2010 and in Ireland since Spring 2011. As of 2009, Mountain Dew represented a 6.7 percent share of the overall carbonated soft drinks market in the U.S. Its competition includes The Coca-Cola Company's Mello Yello, and Dr Pepper Snapple Group's Sun Drop; Mountain Dew accounts for 80 percent of citrus soft drinks sold within the US.
Origin
The Hartman brothers developed Mountain Dew as a mixer. Soft drinks were regional in the 1930s, and the Hartmans had difficulty in Knoxville obtaining their preferred soda to mix with liquor, preferably whiskey, so the two men developed their own.
Charles Gordon, who had partnered with William Swartz to bottle and promote Dr. Enuf, was introduced to Mountain Dew when he met the Hartman brothers on a train and they offered him a sample. Gordon and the Hartman brothers subsequently made a deal to bottle Mountain Dew at Tri-City Beverages.
The Hartman brothers also asked Coca-Cola for input on their own soda; however, the Coca-Cola Company refused their offer.
Packaging
"Mountain Dew" was originally Southern and/or Scots/Irish slang for moonshine (i.e., homemade whiskey), or poitin as it is called in Ireland. Using it as the name for the soda was originally suggested by Carl E. Retzke at an Owens-Illinois Inc. meeting in Toledo, Ohio, and was first trademarked by Ally and Barney Hartman in the 1940s. Early bottles and signage carried the reference forward by showing a cartoon-stylized hillbilly. The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto, and the representation on product packaging has changed at multiple points in the history of the beverage.
Logo
PepsiCo (then The Pepsi-Cola Company) acquired the Mountain Dew brand in 1964, and shortly thereafter in 1969 the logo was modified as the company sought to shift its focus to a "younger, outdoorsy" generation. This direction continued as the logo remained the same through the 1970s, 1980s and then was retired in 1996 when another logo took its place for the next three years. Later updates to the logo were made in 1999 and then again in 2005. In October 2008, the Mountain Dew logo was redesigned to "Mtn Dew" within the U.S. market, as a result of a PepsiCo announcing to rebrand its core carbonated soft-drink products by early 2009. However, the variant flavors continued to use the previous design until May 2011, when it was announced that the "Code Red", "LiveWire", "Voltage", and "Baja Blast" flavor variants would be given redesigned packaging, including new logos to correspond with the "Mtn Dew" style. The returning flavors "Pitch Black", "Supernova", "Typhoon", and "Game Fuel" were given redesigned packaging and logos for their re-release.
Sidekick Bottles
Beginning in summer 2010, a secondary type of Mountain Dew bottles began appearing on some U.S. shelves. Designed by 4sight, a design and innovation firm, these bottles featured a sleeker design, smaller packaging labels, and a built-in grip. The bottles were dubbed "Sidekick bottles" and were tested in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Indiana markets.
Ingredients
In its primary market of the United States, the ingredient composition of Mountain Dew is listed as: "carbonated water, High-fructose corn syrup (in much of the U.S.), concentrated orange juice, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate, caffeine, sodium citrate, erythorbic acid, gum arabic, calcium disodium EDTA, brominated vegetable oil, and yellow 5." The ingredient makeup of Mountain Dew varies based on the country of production. For example, in Canada, the sweetener listed is "fructose/sucrose" and (until 2012) it was caffeine-free by default.
In response to negative publicity around high fructose corn syrup, PepsiCo in 2009 released a limited run production of Mountain Dew Throwback, a variation consisting of sugar in place of high fructose corn syrup. Mountain Dew Throwback subsequently was re-released for brief periods (generally 8-12 weeks at a time), including a second wave from December 2009 to February 2010 and a third wave in the summer and fall of 2010. A fourth 8-week production run began in March 2011, before it became a permanent addition to the Mountain Dew flavor line-up.
An urban legend about Mountain Dew ingredients is that dye Yellow #5 (tartrazine) lowers sperm count. Tartrazine has never been scientifically linked to any of the alleged effects in the legends; nor has any other component of the drink. On the other hand, a scientific review study showed that among children (with and without ADHD) tartrazine can increase ADHD-like symptoms (see Stevens, Kuczek, Burgess, Hurt & Arnold, 2010).
A 12 oz can of Mountain Dew contains 54 mg of caffeine.
Promotions
AMP Energy
AMP Energy is an energy drink distributed by PepsiCo under the Mountain Dew brand. Launched in 2001, AMP was originally known as "Mountain Dew AMP". From 2007 to 2008, several additional flavors of AMP were introduced. In 2012, AMP labeling and ingredients changed, as did the flavor and appeal, according to fans. The Mountain Dew branding was also removed from the cans during this change.
Taco Bell's Mountain Dew Baja Blast
Between 2004 and early 2014, Mountain Dew has given Taco Bell stores the exclusive right to carry Mountain Dew Baja Blast, a blue-colored, tropical-lime-flavored variety of the popular soft drink. Baja Blast was developed to appeal to Taco Bell customers, with the manufacturer conducting extensive research to ensure that the name, color and taste of the drink complemented Taco Bell food products.
In spring 2014, Mountain Dew began distributing Baja Blast in standard 12 oz. cans, 20 oz bottles, and 2 liter bottles for sale at supermarkets and retail businesses in the US. The new retail product bears the Taco Bell logo. Taco Bell's chief marketing officer, Chris Brandt, said the exclusive drinks have helped increase the company's beverage sales, even as soda sales have declined in the broader market. He noted that people are more likely to buy drinks when they're available exclusively at the chain. Due to the drink's success, many other new beverages were introduced at Taco Bell including a new Taco Bell exclusive, Mountain Dew Sangrita Blast, a non-alcoholic sangria flavored Mountain Dew.
DEWmocracy 1
Beginning in 2007, Mountain Dew began a promotion entitled "DEWmocracy", which involved the public electing new flavors, colors, names, packaging graphics and advertisements for upcoming Mountain Dew products. The campaign has been the subject of recognition within the advertising industry, cited as one of the earliest and longest-running examples of a consumer product brand employing crowdsourcing to make decisions which are traditionally made internally by employees. In its initial phase, Dewmocracy participation and voting was conducted via an online game. Television advertisements at the time featured actor Forest Whitaker asking people to decide the next new flavor of Mountain Dew. Online voters selected from three choices: Supernova (a strawberry-melon flavor), Revolution (a berry flavor), and Voltage (a raspberry-citrus flavor). Each included ginseng. The event ended on August 17, 2008, with Voltage announced as the winning flavor. It was officially released on December 29, 2008. According to Beverage Digest, sales of Dewmocracy flavors totaled 25 million cases in 2008.
DEWmocracy 2
Mountain Dew announced a continuation of the Dewmocracy campaign -referred to as "Dewmocracy 2" - which launched in July 2009. A marked difference between Dewmocracy 2 and its predecessor was the wider range of online voting methods, expanding beyond the Dewmocracy website to include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the "Dew Labs Community" - a private, online forum for the "most passionate Dew fans." In July 2009, Dew Labs sampling trucks distributed product samples of seven potential flavor variations. At the same time, 50 "Dew fanatics" were chosen based on their video submissions to the video website 12seconds.tv, and were shipped boxes of the seven prototype flavors. From the initial seven flavors, taste testers were asked to elect three final flavors for later release at retail stores. The three new candidate flavors were Distortion (a key lime flavor), Typhoon (a tropical punch flavor), and White Out (a smooth-citrus flavor). The three new candidate flavors were released on 19 April 2010 and voting lasted until 14 June. The following day, White Out was announced as the winner. Mountain Dew White Out was released for sale on 4 October 2010. A limited production White Out Slurpee (Mtn Dew White Out Freeze) was made available at 7-Eleven beginning in January 2011.
Game Fuel
In 2007, after using the term "Game Fuel" to market their sodas to the video-gaming subculture, Mountain Dew introduced a new flavor variant with that name. Coinciding with the release of the Xbox 360 game Halo 3, Mountain Dew Game Fuel sported a label that was almost entirely image-based, showing promotional artwork for the game and featuring the game series' main character Master Chief prominently. This variant remained on shelves for 12 weeks, and was discontinued afterwards.
Two years later, the website for the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft stated that two Mountain Dew Game Fuel flavors would be sold in June 2009 and would promote the game. Shortly afterwards, the bottle art was released, and showed that the two flavors would promote different player races in the game. One of the two was exactly the same drink from the original Halo 3 promotion, with updated packaging. The second flavor was a new wild fruit drink similar to the previously released Pepsi Blue. Both drinks were given World of Warcraft-based packaging, and sported the newly updated "MTN Dew" logo. Like their precursor, these two flavors lasted for 12 weeks and were discontinued.
On 24 August 2011, Mountain Dew announced another return of the Game Fuel promotion on their Facebook page. The original citrus-cherry would once again be returning, along with a new tropical companion flavor. The announcement gave a planned release date of October 2011 and stated that the packaging would feature codes granting players double experience points in Call of Duty's Modern Warfare 3. Both flavors were mailed out to Dew Labs members in early September 2011, a month before the planned release date. Later that same month, it was announced through the Facebook page that Game Fuel would be arriving to the public in mid-October, though it would vary by market. These flavors began appearing from the first week of October, and were also discontinued after 12 weeks of being on shelves.
Game Fuel returned in October 2012 to promote Halo 4, in the original citrus-cherry flavor. In August 2013, Mountain Dew announced that Game Fuel would be returning to stores in the fall of 2013, with a new blueberry version titled "Electrifying Berry". In October 2013, boxes of original citrus-cherry Game Fuel appeared on store shelves with packaging promoting Xbox ONE and the games Dead Rising 3 and Forza Motorsport 5 and with cans featuring Dead Rising 3 graphics. The new Electrifying Berry flavor of Game Fuel simultaneously appeared with packaging promoting Kinect Sports Rivals and the game Ryse: Son of Rome, graphics from which appear on the cans as well.
Green Label
Green Label is an online magazine, a partnership between Mountain Dew and Complex Media producing sponsored content covering action sports, music, art and style, housed at Green-Label.com. The site replaces several websites and a YouTube channel that have been overseen by PepsiCo since 2007. The initiative originated in 2013 and will continue through the year.
Green Label Art
Mountain Dew's Green Label promotion originated in 2007, when a line of limited edition aluminum bottles was put into production, featuring artwork from a range of tattoo artists and other artists. This initial series marked the first use of the term Green Label Art to describe the use of artistic works on Mountain Dew packaging. In June 2010, a contest entitled "Green Label Art: Shop Series" was announced, involving 35 independent skateboard store owners who partnered with local artists to design and submit future can artwork designs. Approximately one million votes were submitted by the conclusion of the contest in October of the same year, with Street Science Skate Shop - a store in Tracy, California - named the winner of a cash prize. This winning can design was scheduled to appear on Mountain Dew cans at some point in 2011.
Green Label Sound
In 2008, a Mountain Dew-sponsored music label was launched under the name Green Label Sound. In December 2010, a Mountain Dew Code Red television advertisement was produced, incorporating the hip-hop artist Jay Electronica performing his song The Announcement. The advertisement concludes with the tagline "Hip Hop is different on the mountain".
Dew Tour/Green Label experience
Sponsorship of action sports athletes has been a part of Mountain Dew marketing since the late 1990s, with present sponsorship including Eli Reed (skateboarder), Paul Rodriguez (skateboarder), and Danny Davis (snowboarder). Mountain Dew also sponsors its own namesake festival, "The Dew Tour", which is an action sports tour made up of events held in five U.S. cities over several months. The first Dew Tour was held in the summer of 2005 with events in skateboarding, BMX and Freestyle Motocross. In 2008 it expanded to add a "Winter Dew Tour", comprising snowboarding and snow skiing competitions. It is "the most watched and attended action sports event in the world," according to Transworld Snowboarding magazine. In coordination with its Dew Tour sponsorship, a sponsored television show entitled Mountain Dew's Green Label Experience premiered on Fuel TV in July 2010, for the primary purpose of broadcasting interviews with action sports athletes from each of the stops on the Dew Tour.
Green Label Gaming
Under the term Green Label Gaming - coined in 2007 - Mountain Dew has broadened its sponsorship of independent video game designers and players. The brand is often the subject of media attention for its popularity among video game enthusiasts, as several flavors of Mountain Dew have been produced in partnership with video games. In December 2008, Mountain Dew produced a 30-minute television special which documented independent gamers in Japan and the U.S., which aired on the Spike TV network. In 2009, Mountain Dew sponsored two prominent gaming events: the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers Conference. Green Label Gaming has since come under controversy over a sponsored Game Jam-themed reality show by Matti Leshem.
Doritos Quest
In 2008, Doritos debuted a mystery flavor known as "Quest", featuring a campaign of online puzzles and prizes to identify the Quest flavor. The flavor was later identified as Mountain Dew.
FanDEWmonium
In October 2010, Mountain Dew started the "FanDEWmonium" promotion, a competition in which new flavors would compete to become permanent similar to the two DEWmocracy campaigns, but with eight diet flavors instead of three regular ones. Five of the participating flavors were diet versions of previous DEWmocracy flavors: Diet Super Nova, Diet Voltage, Diet Distortion, Diet Typhoon, and Diet White Out. Another flavor, Diet Ultra Violet, was returning from its own limited release in 2009. The two remaining competitors were brand-new Diet flavors created specifically for the promotion - Crave (green apple-flavored), and Flare (berry-citrus-flavored). Each of the eight flavors was available for tasting at specific tour locations, and special cans were also mailed to some Dew Labs members.
Also similar to the DEWmocracy campaign, those who taste-tested the Diet flavors were asked to go online and vote for which flavors they thought should be permanently sold in stores. After the first round of voting was completed, two flavor finalists were chosen to receive a limited release to store shelves for a final round of voting. Diet Voltage and Diet Super Nova were sold in stores for an eight-week period beginning in March 2011. After votes were cast, it was announced that Diet Super Nova had won, with 55% of all votes, and it returned in January 2012 for another 12-week limited release. Afterwards, it was removed from shelves permanently due to poor sales.
Back by Popular DEWmand
On 7 January 2011, Mountain Dew posted on their Facebook that Pitch Black would return to the shelves on May 2011, also stating that this may be the start of many re-releases of old favorites. The company promoted Pitch Black's return heavily with giveaways and contests. About a month before the planned release date, a photo was posted on a Mountain Dew worker's Pongr, which showed Pitch Black and 2008's Supernova. Two weeks before the release, Dew Labs announced the return of 2010's Typhoon in 2-Liter bottles exclusively at Walmart Supercenters. The three flavors were re-released to stores on May 2.
At the same time of the DEWmand Promotion, Mountain Dew launched the Throwback Shack, a website where participators could enter to win exclusive Dew merchandise, including a "secret stash" of Mountain Dew Revolution, a losing competitor from 2008's DEWmocracy. The promotional advertisements were then taken down from the Mountain Dew website. Mountain Dew later stated via tweet that there would not be any more flavors returning 'by Popular DEWmand' for now, as it was only intended to be a summer program.
The Dark Knight Rises partnership
After much speculation over a leaked Instagram photo of a potential new flavor, it was officially announced that Mountain Dew was teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' film The Dark Knight Rises and released a limited-edition flavor on 18 June 2012. A website - DEWGothamCity.com - was launched, on which fans were able to enter codes to access exclusive content and details on the movie before its 20 July release date. Some Mountain Dew products temporarily featured packaging to promote the movie, including thermochromic 16 oz. cans that change color when cooled. The limited-edition flavor, Dark Berry, was mixed berry-flavored, and was available for 8 weeks.
The Dark Knight Rises promotion inspired a permanent 24 oz. version of Mountain Dew.
Dub the Dew
In August 2012, Villa Enterprises held a promotion known as Dub the Dew, where users were asked to submit and vote on name ideas for a green apple flavor of Mountain Dew. The promotion was infamously hijacked by users, particularly those originating from Reddit and the image board 4chan, who submitted and upvoted entries such as "Diabeetus", "Fapple", numerous variations of "Gushing Granny", and "Hitler did nothing wrong". Although the promotion was not directly connected to Mountain Dew, a representative from the company did offer to "help clean up" the site. Adweek compared the incident to another recent campaign, where musician Pitbull was sent to perform in Kodiak, Alaska in a Walmart promotion.