Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 13: BOTTLED UP: THE BATTLE OVER DUBLIN DR PEPPER
Drew Rist’s look at a David and Goliath soft drink controversy debuted at Dallas’ USA Film Festival last year. It also screened at Santa Barbara in advance of today’s FilmBuff release of the doc on iTunes and other major VOD platforms.
For over a hundred year, until January 2012, Dublin TX had developed a successful cottage industry manufacturing and distributing the original formula of the niche soda, Dr Pepper, within a local franchise region. Originally developed in Waco TX in 1885, Dublin was the site of the first independent bottling company, in operation since 1891. Tradition and popular support maintained the use of cane sugar even after corporate Dr Pepper had long switched to high fructose corn syrup for their sweetening agent, creating a passionate regional following, with stories of customers driving hundreds of miles to pick up a case of what became semi-officially known as “Dublin Dr Pepper.” As Rist’s film reveals, through a not unappealing folksy narrator and interviews with primary players, all that changed when Dr Pepper Snapple, suddenly protective of their corporate trademark, sued the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company, eventually settling the dispute by ending the longtime franchise agreement, eliminating the regional variant altogether. Despite its title, Rist’s simple doc is less about the legal battle – the result is all too quickly revealed – and more about its impact on the town of Dublin, which grew economically dependent not only on the bottling company, but also on the ancillary benefits that came from being so closely associated with the soft drink.
what (not) to doc 