Dr Pepper Goes Viral for Unintentional ‘Product Placement’ During Sidney Powell's Jan. 6 Hearing

They say no publicity is bad publicity, but for one popular soda, social media seems to say otherwise.

Sidney Powell, an attorney who played a key role in Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat, is back in the news. On July 12, Powell appeared as the latest witness in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, although her testimony wasn’t the only thing getting the major attention: Her choice of refreshment, a Diet Dr Pepper, seemingly stole the show.

During the recorded video testimony from Powell, she held a Diet Dr Pepper on the table at camera level, taking a long sip from the soda’s signature blend of 23 flavors and placing it down, logo-side out.

For Dr Pepper, which enjoys a position as one of the most popular sodas in America, its appearance in this context is unusual. That may be why fans of the soda (and of drama, to be frank) took to Twitter to share their thoughts on what is likely a case of unintentional product placement.

“Is Sydney Powell trying to score an endorsement deal from Dr Pepper?” said tweeted one person.

"Dr Pepper has got to love that Sidney Powell is chugging their product for all to see," added another Twitter user.

“worst dr pepper commercial ever,” tweeted another user. That sentiment was shared by "Handmaid's Tale" actor Bradley Whitford, who remarked something similar.

“That was an odd edit. She didn’t say anything else after she drank the pop, so I don’t know what they didn’t end the cut after she stopped speaking. They didn’t need that loooong shot of her just drinking pop out of a can,” added another Twitter user, although many of the other comments on the social media platform were comedic in tone.

"Sidney Powell providing the weirdest Diet Dr. Pepper product placement of all time," someone else tweeted.

“My job as Dr Pepper’s social media manager is great, it’s nothing but tweets and posts and laughs and a little marketing, there’s never any trouble, I’m just going to take a biiiig sip and then open Twitter to see what is,” joked another Twitter user.

The appearance of Diet Dr Pepper as a supporting actor in Powell’s time on screen and the resulting Twitter frenzy that ensued wasn’t lost on Powell herself. She later took to Trump's social media platform Truth Social to address her grievances with how much attention was being put on her choice of soft drink.

“It’s easy to live rent free in the heads of #leftists,” said Powell in her post on the site. Powell added that her claims on the election were unjustly overshadowed by her need to quench her thirst with a can of Diet Dr Pepper. “I’ll have more to say soon,” she said.

TODAY Food reached out to Keurig Dr Pepper for comment but hasn't heard back.

The once-Trump lawyer also asked users to send her Twitter memes, reminding her followers that she is banned from the site. Powell was banned from Twitter in early 2021, along with Michael Flynn and other high-profile supporters of President Trump who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, driving her to Trump’s social media platform.

Powell also called the diet soft drink “a great Texas tradition” in another entry on her account, and said that she bets the stock “would go up tomorrow.” She’s correct about that: July 13’s stock price in Keurig Dr Pepper is up a half a percentage point from the day of her viral testimony, although whether that’s because of its appearance in her deposition or other factors, like many things, remains to be proven.