Budweiser and Dr Pepper Both Need to Lighten Up

I've spent a lot of years in the beverage business, so I pay more attention to what all the major players are doing with their marketing and advertising than the average Joe.  I'm more likely to notice when any of them do something particularly clever or when any of them do something that seems boneheaded.

In general, I am a huge fan of how Budweiser handles its marketing and advertising investment, but their new "Drinkability" strategy for Bud Light strikes me as completely ridiculous.  Who are they talking to?  

1. Are they trying to persuade competitive beer drinkers to switch to Bud Light because it is somehow easier to drink?  Do they think that someone is finding their current brand of suds hard to drink?  Do they think that any beer drinker needs permission to drink more beer?  
   
2. Are they talking to current Bud Light drinkers to persuade them to stay with the brand because it is more "drinkable", whatever the heck that means? 

Target audience issues aside, what makes Budweiser think that they can leverage "drinkability" in the first place?  It's a silly concept that has no universal meaning.  What's drinkable to me may not be drinkable to you.  There is no objective standard that defines "drinkability."  When you watch the ads, you see that they struggle to explain the term and then they try to convince you that Bud Light has more of it.  This is a recipe for advertising disaster and all the ads that I've seen stink.  They are so tragically beneath the high standard that Budweiser has established for its advertising that it makes you wonder "what is wrong at Bud HQ these days?"  I predict sanity will soon reign again at Bud and that this direction for them will be very short-lived.

The other beverage company that has puzzled me in the last year with the strategic direction of their advertising is Dr Pepper.  The first misstep was trying to persuade people that 7 Up was "natural."  It's a soft drink for crying out load!  There is practically nothing more unnatural.  This strategy was an insult to our collective intelligence.  7 Up is "The Uncola" and why they have abandoned that fundamentally sound brand positioning is beyond me.

Dr Pepper has recently launched a new strategy for the mother brand, Dr Pepper.  The brand has traditionally been positioned around user imagery - specifically the individuality of Dr Pepper drinkers compared to cola drinkers.  "Be a Pepper" was a delightful expression of that and it worked for the brand for years.  Now, they're trying to persuade me that Dr Pepper should be my soft drink because of its more complex flavor - specifically that is made up of 23 different flavors.  Am I the only one who finds this not only hard to believe but completely irrelevant?  Since when was buying a soft drink about something so esoteric as its flavor recipe?  Why should I care that is has 23 different flavors?  The only imagery it brings to my mind is that of the pretentious wine drinker who sniffs and sips and then pronounces that the wine has "a note of blackberries and a slight aroma of cherries."  Dr Pepper isn't wine.  It's a soft drink.  

Both Budweiser and Dr Pepper need to lighten up.  Beers and soft drinks are supposed to be about fun, good times and sociability.  It's not rocket science.  It's not about complex concepts like "drinkability" and "23 flavors." It's about simple physical and emotional refreshment.