Posted on 01/26/2009 1:23:53 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
Email Received from Pepsi:
Dear _______,
In marketing our products, we always aim to convey a message of youthful spirit and optimism. As you can imagine, we try to make full use of events and venues from which we can reach the largest number of potential consumers with our message. For instance, Pepsi was widely visible at the New Year’s Eve celebrations in New York’s Times Square, and we currently are gearing up for our much-anticipated television advertising during the Super Bowl.
The inauguration of a president is another such event that engages a large number of people, both attending in Washington, D.C. as well as watching from living rooms around the world.
Our advertising initiatives coinciding with the inauguration reflect the hope shared by Americans of all political persuasions that our new president will succeed in meeting the serious challenges facing our country and our world. I can assure you that our marketing focus is set on reaching consumers to highlight our portfolio of beverages and snacks, and not the agenda of any political party.
Thanks for allowing us to share this information with you.
***************************
My response:
Dear ________:
Thank you for your email response. However, I find your explanation unconvincing. Pepsi has chosen to use a logo and slogan similar to Barack Obama's presidential CAMPAIGN logo and slogan. It has not chosen a theme reflective generally of America's constitutional traditions at the time of an inauguration. A campaign is most certainly a partisan political event. Mr. Obama was the nominee of a specific political party, i.e., the Democratic Party. Furthermore, I do not recall Pepsi ever using campaign logos and slogans of previous successful Republican presidential candidates to celebrate any of their inaugurations. It is simply disingenuous of Pepsi to deny that its use of advertising reflective of Democratic party campaign slogan and logo is partisan. Apparently, the left in this country, having already captured the leadership of and politicized various institutions of this country, including academia, the press and Hollywood, has now moved on to capture control of a large corporation such as Pepsi. In my view, Pepsi is a business, not a political movement, and should not be politicized. But of course that is only my view, and Pepsi is free to do anything it wants. However, as I said previously, if Pepsi wishes to engage in left-wing political propaganda, I will not buy its products.
I remember seeing that Pepsi logo long before Obama’s campaign, so perhaps you’re right. Anybody have any reference on how long the logo has been in existance?
Forget my last post then. Should have read to the end. :)
Will it make a difference? I at least will feel that I am not making a contribution to Obama propaganda. And I’m not sure I’ll be the only one boycotting. Judging on the comments, at least several Freepers will be joining me. And maybe it will cause them to think twice about alienating a significant percentage of the public.
good reply. bet they don’t reply back!
RC Cola and a moonpie, please.
Guys, take off your tin-foil hats.
The new logo is obviously just an update of their old logo. Companies plan these moves a long way in advance. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hadn’t of already developed the new logo and planned the change in 2007 before Obama even started running.
As far as the hope and change advertisements go, it is a typical corporate move to try and and glom onto whatever is popular at the time. The company doesn’t care one way or another about politics, they just want to sell soda.
I had a similar conversation and email exchange with Krispy Kreme Donuts and Porsche.
Sorry, not Porsche, but AUDI.
It all just becomes a blur after a while. Pepsi steals the Obama logo for their cans, Obama steals slogans from Bob the Builder. It just goes on and on.
Maybe you didn’t see their redesigned logo, nor their ads to Refresh the generation by sending congratulatory messages to the new president. It was a Flash ad on some websites with a textbox to send messages to Obama on his inauguration. Never seen anything like that in 2001 or 2005.
Perhaps you should check out their Bush-bashing, Obama praising website Refresheverything.com
And piss off the 50++ million people (read: customers) that didn't vote for the guy?
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