Deutsch LA unleashes some potent adorbs for Dr Pepper in this ad starring a super-shaggy "mop dog"—a Hungarian herding pooch known as a Puli with a dreadlock-style corded coat.
Try as it might, our lovable hero just can't seem to fit in. The stray hitches a ride with a Dr Pepper delivery dude, played by Domingo Molina, who memorably essayed a villain in early episodes of Breaking Bad, and they head for the pound. Will the guy keep the misfit pooch, validating the brand's new tagline, "Always be one of a kind," and giving us a three-hanky happy ending? C'mon, Krazy-8, what's your play?
This stuff is hokey and sentimental, manipulative in the extreme—one more example of a brand taking the easiest route to play on consumers' emotions. (Why not just drive the beast to the Super Bowl so it can frolic with the cuddly canine commercial stars from Anheuser-Busch and Go Daddy?)
That said, director Simon McQuoid of Imperial Woodpecker unfurls the tale, and the tail, with understated aplomb. And that scrappy scamp is so darn cute … sniff … I can barely see the screen as I type this.
Oh man, that mop dog will wring every last tear from your eyes.