"I knew it was a banger right away": Onion Labs creates rapping advert for Diet Dr Pepper

One of everyone’s favourite farce publications, The Onion has used its quick witted, fun-poking humour to create an advert for Diet Dr Pepper. The short is created by the publication’s in-house creative agency, Onion Labs, in partnership with media agency Initiative, and translates its brilliant comedic writing into film.

“You win The World Series – you pop champagne. You finally make your bed leaving for work – you crack open that Diet Dr Pepper!” says Onion Labs. The advert places Diet Dr Pepper as the everyday fizzy drink to treat yourself to when you make those small steps in life which are just generally annoying. From reading an entire article “not just the headline” or handing in your tax return “before the deadline”, all of these little tasks that fill our daily lives are pinpointed in a rap by 23 Skinny feat Lil Pep (a lil pepper?) and “when you get things done, you reward yourself”…with a Diet Dr Pepper.

“When I thought about celebrating, a music video came right to mind,” explains senior copywriter for Onion Labs Eric Munn, who has created Crack That Pepper’s catchy song and advert concept. “I’ve wanted to do a parody music video ever since I joined Onion Labs and finally a brief came in that was perfect for it.”

Eric also worked with director Abe Zverow and with Rashid Lamarre who directed post production to make this canned drink hit of a song. Both Abe and Rashid are also musicians, “so I reached out to them right away,” Eric explains. “They mixed the background music and I knew it was a banger right away. Once I had the beat, coming up with lyrics became a fun task. I thought of all the little accomplishments in my day and made them seem like grand achievements.”

Made with both live action filming and animated overlays, the advert builds upon that classic Dr Pepper colour palette of a dark red and white. The video has amassed 500,000 views on Facebook, and counting. “Calling your mom and carrying all the groceries in just one go are made to look like conquering Everest, plus the chorus is super catchy,” says Onion Labs.