You used to know where you were with Diet Drinks. They would usually come in white, or at least lighter versions of the full fat packaging and have the word DIET emblazoned on them. They were, in short, pretty easy to avoid. Now however things have changed. Take Dr Pepper Z. I accidentally did. What I wanted was the hangover sating tang of a sugary syrupy soft drink. What I got was like the remnants of a mud flavoured ice lolly.
The can looks exactly the same. (Others agree with me on this.) Except for a big ZED (not a ZEE) on it, in a different font and stylized in such a way as to just look like a lightning bolt or a bit of flash on the can. Coupled with the “win stuff” promotion, it was impossible to detect that this would do nothing for my hangover but mock me.
And the Z? It stands for Zero Added Sugar. Even the phrase seems clumsy. Take your Z and put it in the stupid ideas bin.