Ah, Dr Pepper.

In my opinion, Dr Pepper is an incredibly underrated soda. The taste is delicious, it's not too sweet and it doesn't taste too artificial like say Cherry Coke or Diet Coke, and to quote my friend, it has a "fiery" taste to it. And, if the taste wasn't enough to sway me, the marketing efforts alone would do it.

In fact, in the fall of 2017 I became a member of the #PepperPack, which is Dr Pepper's brand ambassador program. Through that, I've received a free shirt, multiple stickers, patches, including a special 6 Month Anniversary patch, and opportunities for multiple "campaigns" and involvement within the Dr Pepper community. Oh, and I received a free Halloween costume of their mascot, Larry Culpepper, pictured below.

It all started with a youth group trip in July 2017. Two of my friends, my youth pastor, and I were all getting drinks and one girl said Dr Pepper was her favorite soda. The other three of us agreed, and were all surprised because we hadn't found many other people who liked the "fiery" taste of Dr Pepper, so this was a big deal. It quickly became a competition of who liked it more; we asked trivia questions, would call each other out for not ordering it at meals, and it became like a game.

One of the days on our trip, we met a river raft guide named Sam who was wearing a bracelet with a certain plant on it (#420), and the Dr Pepper Friendship Bracelet Fan Club was born. We couldn't help but think how cool it would be to have Dr Pepper bracelets, and so when we got home we sent a letter requesting just that. My friend wrote them exactly "Imagine loving something so much that you'd wear it on your wrist." Unfortunately, we received a letter back that said they had their own marketing team, and we wouldn't be receiving our bracelets.

All hope was lost until October, when my friend who originally mailed, emailed, and tweeted Dr Pepper the letter received a Twitter DM from the Dr Pepper account itself. They thought our story was so cool and so funny, and said they thought we would be the perfect addition to the Pepper Pack, which was their new ambassador program. They also said they wanted to send us all surprises, and several months later we received our own DP Pepper Pack bracelets in the mail.

Being apart of the Pepper Pack has been such a fun experience. You get to rep your favorite soda, and honestly one of my favorite companies in general, and all you have to do is post about your DP merch. You don't even have to post if you don't want to, and DP still sends you emails and updates and opportunities for free merch. It's more about having fun and helping create a community of ideas than solely posting on social media.

Quit sleeping on Dr Pepper!

Not only is it delicious, but the fans are absolutely fantastic. And I'm definitely not biased.