Pepsi (PEP) wants to add some shine to its Mountain Dew brand.
The soda maker will release "DewShine," a limited edition citrus craft soda later this month. The drink is made with cane sugar and comes in long-neck glass bottles and looks a little bit like moonshine.
Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman calls this a packaging gimmick and doesn't think this is necessarily a big game changer for the brand.
“When your brand is losing its luster a little bit, you try to repackage it, you resell it, you reimagine it. That's what they're doing here. You are hearing these complaints that 'Oh my God, this bottle sort of looks like a beer bottle and they're marketing this to children. Oh this is the worst thing.' They're not putting beer in the bottle, people. They are not selling beer to kids; they are just changing a look. It is a trendy look, but I mean seriously, this is a long-neck, which they've been drinking in Texas since 1920. If it has some appeal, fine. In itself it's not going to remake the brand,” explains Newman.
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A bottle of the new Mountain Dew drink will cost about a $1 or $1.49 and a four-pack will set you back about $3.99 according to USA Today.
Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task in not surprised by the new Mountain Dew drink especially with the growing popularity of all things craft.
“Mountain Dew is very popular with millennials and the kids... we talked about Chipotle (CMG) and El Pollo Loco (LOCO) - they like better ingredients. We are going to see more of this because there are some niche craft soda makers out there that are starting to take some market share from the big guys. Just like Chipotle is taking market share from McDonald's (MCD), you have these small soda makers taking share from Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi. So Mountain Dew and other big brands, established brands, are responding to that,” according to Task.
A spokeswoman for Mountain Dew told USA Today that the new design was "inspired by the brand's roots in the backwoods of Tennessee."
After all “Mountain Dew” is also slang for moonshine. But don't expect any alcohol in the new drink.
