Back in 2012, the marketing world was obsessed with "crowdsourcing." It was the shiny new toy. Brands thought they could just hand the keys to the kingdom over to the internet and get back pure, organic gold. Then came the Mountain Dew naming contest, officially titled "Dub the Dew," and everything changed.
It was supposed to be a simple, fun way to name a new green-apple-flavored soda. Instead, it became one of the most legendary train wrecks in digital marketing history. Honestly, it's still the go-to cautionary tale for why you never, ever let an unmoderated poll decide your brand’s future.
The Day the Internet Noticed Dub the Dew
The setup was pretty standard for the time. Mountain Dew (a PepsiCo brand) launched a website where fans could submit names for a new flavor and vote on their favorites. The top ten names on the leaderboard were supposed to be the finalists.
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Then 4chan and Reddit found it.
If you aren't familiar with early 2010s internet culture, 4chan’s /b/ board was basically a collective of digital pranksters who lived to find "loopholes" in corporate sincerity. They didn't want a "Green Apple Blast." They wanted chaos. Within hours, the leaderboard wasn't just weird; it was genuinely offensive and utterly unusable.
The number one spot was claimed by "Hitler did nothing wrong." Let that sink in. A major global beverage corporation had a leaderboard topped by a neo-Nazi meme. And it didn't stop there. Other top contenders included:
- Gushing Granny
- Fapple
- Diabeetus
- Soda
- Sierra Mist (The ultimate petty move)
Why the Mountain Dew Naming Contest Failed So Hard
It wasn't just that people had a dark sense of humor. The actual technology behind the contest was a disaster. Security experts later pointed out that the site lacked "input sanitization." Basically, the programmers forgot to scrub the text people were entering.
This meant the trolls didn't just vote; they took over the site’s interface. They injected code to make the page "Rickroll" unsuspecting visitors. They even managed to put up a banner that claimed Mountain Dew saluted the Israeli Mossad for 9/11. It was a total security nightmare.
The brand was essentially "dead in the water" the moment they realized they couldn't just delete the bad names—they had lost control of the entire domain.
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The Problem of "The Gushing Granny" Split
One of the funniest, albeit weirdest, parts of the saga was the "Gushing Granny" phenomenon. Even the trolls couldn't agree on a single name. While the Hitler entry eventually won out, it only did so because the "Granny" vote was split between several variations:
- Gushing Granny
- Gushin' Granny
- Gushing Grannies
- Gushing Green Granny
If the internet had just picked one version of the "Granny" name, the Mountain Dew naming contest might have ended with a slightly less offensive (but still gross) winner. It’s a bizarre lesson in "ranked-choice voting" that political scientists still joke about today.
The Fallout and the "Mtn Dew" Response
Mountain Dew did what any panicked corporation would do: they nuked the site. They pulled the plug, issued a statement admitting that the contest had been "compromised," and basically went quiet for a while.
The drink did eventually come out, but not with a fan-chosen name. It was released as Mountain Dew Electric Apple (and later variations like Thrashed Apple).
They didn't try to "lean into the joke" like Pitbull did when the internet voted to send him to a Walmart in remote Kodiak, Alaska. Pitbull actually went. Mountain Dew, understandably, decided that some jokes are just too radioactive to touch.
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Lessons for 2026: Why This Still Matters
You'd think brands would have learned by now, right?
Nope. We still see this happening. Remember Boaty McBoatface? That was the UK's National Environment Research Council trying the same thing years later. They ended up naming the ship the RRS Sir David Attenborough and giving the "Boaty" name to a small sub-vessel as a consolation prize.
The reality is that "The Internet" isn't a single person. It’s a swarm. When you give a swarm power without guardrails, it will always choose the most disruptive option.
How to Actually Do a Brand Contest Right
If you're a business owner or a marketer today, here is how you avoid the "Dub the Dew" fate:
- Curate first, vote second. Never let the public write in their own names on a public-facing leaderboard. You should provide 5-10 "pre-approved" options that you’ve already cleared with your legal team.
- Sanitize your inputs. This is tech-speak for "don't let people put code into your text boxes." If your site can be hacked by someone typing
<script>, you shouldn't have a site. - Terms of Service are your friend. Explicitly state that the company has the final say and can disqualify any entry for any reason.
The Mountain Dew naming contest remains the ultimate proof that crowdsourcing is a double-edged sword. It can give you a lot of engagement, sure. But it can also leave you explaining to your board of directors why "Moist Nugget" is currently trending alongside your logo.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Campaign:
- Audit your tech stack. Before launching any public-facing poll, have a developer test for SQL injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.
- Use a "Closed" nomination phase. Collect ideas via a private form, vet them for trademarks and offensiveness, and then present the "top 3" for a public vote.
- Prepare a crisis comms plan. If things go sideways, don't just delete the site and hide. Acknowledging the "troll culture" with a bit of humor (while holding a firm line on offensive content) often works better than corporate silence.