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Justin Guarini As ‘Lil’ Sweet’: Fans, Critics Compare Character In Diet Dr. Pepper Ads To Prince

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 12:22 PST, Apr 23, 2016

Singer Justin Guarini seems to be getting a lot of attention recently for his performance in several soda commercials.

The American Idol alum plays the character “Lil’ Sweet” in a series of advertisements and commercials promoting Diet Dr. Pepper as “the sweet one.”

The “Lil’ Sweet” commercials are not part of a brand new campaign from Dr. Pepper. Guarini’s portrayal of the singing character first started making waves last March. However, a recently released “Lil’ Sweet” commercial is apparently drawing a lot of attention due to the close comparisons made between Justin Guarini’s character and the late singer Prince.

When “Lil’ Sweet” made his debut last year, the comparisons between the character and Prince were crystal clear to a number of fans and critics. His overall rock-n-roll presence, flashy hair, make-up, beard, and impressive singing range made it seem like he was impersonating Prince — and doing a pretty amazing job at it!

However, there were still enough differences and distinctions between “Lil’ Sweet” and the real-life Prince to avoid any lawsuits or courtroom battles between the two brands. For instance, Justin Guarini is definitely wearing a colorful wig, a hairpiece that Prince would have never worn (or even needed to wear) throughout his career.

With the recent news of Prince’s tragic death, though, quite a few people on Twitter still feel as if Justin Guarini’s “Lil’ Sweet” performance might be a little too close for comfort.

However, there are still many other people that enjoy watching the “Lil’ Sweet” commercials even more now, especially considering the close comparisons between Justin Guarini’s character and Prince.

Justin Guarini opened up to Entertainment Weekly last March in an interview about “Lil’ Sweet” and the Diet Dr. Pepper commercials.

The 37-year-old singer explained that his agent told him Dr. Pepper was looking for someone to play a character in a new commercial, but there was not an established character in mind. Guarini claims that he went to the audition, “did some kind of crazy stuff,” “sung a lot of the lines,” and got the job. When it came to developing the actual “Lil’ Sweet” character, Guarini claimed that it was a collaborative effort between him and Dr. Pepper.

“The whole thought behind him is that we wanted him to be a rock god. He’s not necessarily one person – I think he personifies an era of rock and glam. His whole thing is that he also personifies the benefits of Diet Dr. Pepper – you have all the sweetness with none of the calories. And that’s why he’s so small.”

In order to achieve the “vertically-challenged” appearance of his character, Guarini confirmed that the commercials are shot in front of a green screen. When it comes to channeling the “Lil’ Sweet” character, Justin Guarini told Entertainment Weekly that he essentially becomes the character as soon as he puts on the costume.

“I’m not one of those actors that walks around all day acting like Lil’ Sweet – that’d probably be pretty annoying – but I really feel like once I put the clothes on, then I’m wearing the character and I just let whatever comes out come out.But that’s the sort of dream job as a creative person in any field – you have your boundaries and you have your opportunities to play inside those, but then you have a wonderful creative team all thinking of funny and interesting things.”

Whether or not Dr. Pepper will continue to use Justin Guarini as “Lil’ Sweet” in future commercials is yet to be seen. What is clear, though, is that Justin Guarini should be added to the list of celebrities capable of impersonating Prince successfully or at least performing in a musical tribute to the legendary Hall of Famer.

[Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

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