During 1985, Dr. Pepper acquired the rights to utilize Godzilla’s image in a series of commercials depicting the Kaiju King’s love of the famous soft drink during the company’s memorable “Out of the Ordinary” advertising campaign.
Since this coincided with New World Picture’s release of Godzilla 1985 that same year, the two companies decided to unite their efforts and pool their resources. Dr. Pepper financed New World’s extensive re-working of the film, and in return, New World included generous scenes of American military men slurping down Dr. Pepper in the new, made-in-America footage.
The first of the two commercials was well done, but unspectacular. Godzilla, who was made to look wonderfully malevolent, was rampaging through a city, all filmed in black and white, until the beast noticed a giant “in color” reproduction of a can of Dr. Pepper, set to his scale. The Kaiju King promptly grabbed the can and gulped down its contents, the soft drink’s taste placating the monster’s rampage.
The second commercial was more bizarre, and much less dutiful. This time Dr. Pepper introduced a romantic interest for Godzilla, a female member of his ‘species’ named “Newzilla” (after Dr. Pepper’s trademarked saying in the early '80s of being the “New Generation” in soft drinks). Godzilla attempted to stimulate the she-monster’s romantic sparks by offering her a variety of things (including flowers), all of which she refused. Of course, he finally won her heart when he offered her a can of Dr. Pepper.
These two commercials were amusing, but they hardly did much for the radioactive titan's image in America, which has always been portrayed as campy due to the disproportionate amount of attention paid to the Showa Series films of the 1970s. Seven years later, however, another company would change all that.
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