Why drink Dr Pepper at 10 oclock, 2 oclock, and 4 oclock?
(Most of this info comes from the book The Legend of Dr Pepper/Seven Up.) “Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2, and 4 o’clock,” was the slogan for an ad campaign for Dr. Pepper that began in 1927. A study that year authored by a Dr. Walter H. Eddy “found that human energy dropped to its lowest point at 10:30am, at 2:30pm and again at 4:30pm daily.” J.B. O’Hara of Dr. Pepper asked Tracy-Locke-Dawson Inc. (an ad agency), to design a campaign around that information. The agency held a contest, and Earle Racey, one of their copywriters, won with his “10-2-4” idea–the idea being that drinking the sugary, caffeinated soda at 10am, 2pm, and 4pm would perk you up and get you through those impending energy drops a half-hour later. The slogan has endured in one form or another ever since.
