A popular Dr Pepper t-shirt.

Wearing a T-shirt with a Dr Pepper slogan on it is eating shit.

In the early to mid 2000s, you couldn’t go to a mall, high school, or social event without seeing someone wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase, “I’m a Pepper.”

Most popular with teenage girls, the T-shirt was a Dr Pepper-branded graphic tee, much like those found in Abercrombie & Fitch or Old Navy. But. . . it was referencing the Dr Pepper brand of cola. The shirts were usually red, white, or pink, with the words “I’m a Pepper“ heathered or worn away to make the garment look vintage.

The expression was nothing more than one of Dr Pepper's slogans — literally an advertisement. Apparently, in the 1970s, there were Dr Pepper commercials where a man sang about being “a pepper,” meaning that he was a devotee of the cola. There isn’t much more to it than that (but I also don’t care to find out any more, even if there is).

For some inexplicable reason, it became trendy for teenage girls to advertise a slogan that was only in use decades before they born. Nobody knew why then, and nobody knows why now.

I always liked Dr Pepper, but I don't remember the soft drink ever being particularly popular. It was not a fad. It was not a trend. “I’m a Pepper” didn’t mean anything: slang, innuendo, or otherwise. Nobody talked about Dr Pepper for any reason unless they happened to be discussing soda already. Quite simply, liking Dr Pepper was not a thing, even ironically. But 20 years ago, tens of thousands of people wore that specific T-shirt all the time. Of all the graphic tees advertising a real-life brand, I’d wager that this particular Dr Pepper rag was even more common than any clothing promoting Coca-Cola or Pepsi, two soda brands that were obviously much more commonplace.

Nobody talked about the shirt as a fashion choice, either. People just. . . wore it, without further comment or analysis. Nobody complimented it; nobody insulted it. I think most people figured the phrase had some hidden meaning they simply didn’t understand, but because the shirt was always so ubiquitous, they were too embarrassed to ask what.

How many people knew this was a Dr Pepper-branded t-shirt in the first place? I imagine many shoppers must’ve seen the shirt folded in a stack on a table at a Gap store and picked it up, just because it was available. How many noticed the Dr Pepper logo underneath the slogan? Did they think “I’m a Pepper” was just a cute, flirty, meaningless phrase? Did being a “pepper” mean something in their minds (like. . . a “hot tamale,” maybe??)?

This phenomenon may have started among teenage girls, but it didn’t stay that way. After a few years of the fashion cycle trickling down, you’d see men, women, and others of all ages — anyone gunning for a casual, no-frills, no-personality look — proudly strutting their stuff. Whether dressed up cute for a date, thrown on lazily as pajamas for a trip to the airport, or styled in countless morning-to-evening looks between school, the mall, or the movies, in the 2000s. . . everyone was, indeed, a pepper.

Then, the trend was gone almost as quickly as it started, with the Captain America logo tee swiftly taking its place.

Why? Why that? Why then? Why that shirt? Why that style? Why Dr Pepper? Why Captain America? Why was it never formally acknowledged? Why are you still reading this? ✍︎