You guys! Every time I see this commercial, I think they mean "Quaker Up" kind of like "Man Up" or "Cowboy Up" or "Nut Up," like just grow some balls and do the thing that's scaring you, and it makes me laugh because I picture the Quaker Oats guy with the powdered wig, like, getting rad on a skateboard half-pipe.
Stephan assures me that this is not the message, that Quaker is trying to tell us to "carb up" with their oats so that we can do athletic-type things. I am not even the right target audience for this because I'm not an athlete-type and I don't really eat oatmeal that much, but I still think "Quaker Up" sounds so funny to me. "What are you, scared? Quaker up, kid! OH!"
To me, this is a classic example of an advertising agency trying to make a strange-sounding slogan become an instant part of our regular parlance but not quite succeeding, so that every time you hear the expression, you are drawn to how foreign it sounds. I also question the use of the soft and gentle female voiceover for these spots when they are trying to get you to Quaker Up and do something challenging. Just my opinion, of course. Maybe I need to Quaker Up and get over it.