More Dew

Puck, there's also another Dew that you missed in your Pitch Black rant: Mountain Dew Baja Blast. It's supposedly a limeish flavor by my coworker who tried it is claiming "grapefruit". It's only available at Taco Bell (why? does that drive taco sales?) so that might explain why you hadn't seen it. The logo just looks like a faded Dew logo to me so even if one went to Taco Bell you would easily overlook it.

The biggest problem with all of this is that "Mountain Dew" has been diluted to mean almost nothing. If you say you like Mountain Dew many will ask, "regular or Code Red?" (or Live Wire or whatever). The brand means almost nothing now.

This isn't the first time PepsiCo has done this: in the 80s we were deluged with Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Free, Diet Pepsi Free, and so on; CocaCola had Coke, New Coke, Coke Classic, Diet Coke, Coke II, caffeine Free Coke, etcetera.

The end result is that if you want a Coke you must specify "what kind". Alright, in some parts of the country where Coke is sysnonymous with "soda" this has always been the case. But, if you ask for a Mountain Dew you must specify "what kind". This is idiocy as the whole point of a strong brand is brand recognition: The more you dilute the brand the less it means anything to people.

I think I'll stick to water.