Posted on 08/29/2002 12:53:19 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
It used to be that the American ethic was to reward good behavior and punish wrongdoing. Remember those days? Well, they are gone but maybe not forever.
Last week the Pepsi-Cola company announced they hired the rapper Ludacris to do a commercial that would run during the MTV awards. Seemed like a good move on paper as Ludacris sells millions of records to the young people that Pepsi wants lapping up soda.
But Ludacris is a thug rapper. His lyrics celebrate intoxication, irresponsible sex, drug dealing and violence. The man brags he has a "ho" in every area code. He raps that "I'm DUI, hardly ever sober."
In proudly announcing the acquisition of Ludacris' services, the director of "multi-cultural marketing" at Pepsi, Giuseppe D'Alessandro, said: "There's a new Pepsi generation. Our youth are colorblind, and very diverse."
Well, that's swell, Giuseppe, but is the "new Pepsi generation" deaf as well as color blind? Ludacris espouses illegal, anti-social and subversive conduct all over the place. So what's up with that, my multi-cultural friend?
Under withering criticism from me on television and radio, Pepsi promptly dumped Ludacris and pulled the ad. Good for them. Pepsi has made trillions of dollars in America and it owes the country some sense of decency. By paying and promoting Ludacris, Pepsi-Cola was rewarding bad behavior and encouraging children to sample his tawdry wares.
The reason that Pepsi reversed itself is that thousands of Americans e-mailed the company and said they would not buy its products as long as Ludacris was endorsing them. The power of the people prevailed. Let's hope a trend has started here.
But Pepsi is not alone in enriching people that deserve to be scorned, not celebrated.
Have you seen this Anna Nicole Smith show on the E-cable network? Here is a woman who bought herself giant breasts, posed naked, married an 89-year-old millionaire and hungrily gathered up his money when he expired. That's Ms. Smith's entire resume.
Yet she is given a national television program on which she displays no talent, an incredible lack of intelligence, and is snippy to boot. I watched in horror for 10 minutes as this woman wandered around aimlessly murdering the English language and sneering into the camera. I finally bailed when she decided to get a garish tatoo put on her substantial ankle. If this is entertainment, I am Michael Jackson.
And then there's Michael Irvin. The former Dallas Cowboy was constantly in trouble with drugs and other questionable stuff as a player and now he's been hired by Fox Sports Net as a commentator. Why? Because like Anna Nicole Smith, he's notorious. Irvin has no broadcast talent and is depriving somebody who does of a job.
The list of undesirables that have prospered because of their misbehavior is long and depressing. Eminem gets a Grammy. Mike Tyson gets a boxing license. Monica Lewinsky gets a book deal. Enough, already!
We need to stop celebrating awful people and start shunning them. And if giant corporations insist on hiring these pinheads, then we should shun the companies. America is becoming a giant sideshow where degenerates are in demand. What's next, a reality program featuring Michael Skakel?
Way back in the beginning, President George Washington nailed it. He said this: "Associate yourself with men of quality if you esteem your reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."
Words to live by. And I am sending that quote to Pepsi-Cola. Perhaps they'll pass it along to the new Pepsi generation.
My parents inherited some Quaker Oats stock, but that company was bought by Pepsico a year or so ago, and it is in our modest portfolio whether we like it or not.
I was thinking of pulling a Chuck Heston at a stockholders' meeting and was very happy when O'Reilly let me know it wouldn't be necessary.
I live in Atlanta. Pepsi is invisible here in Coke country. ;-)
That said, this is a lesson to all of us in how little pressure it takes to get results. There was a recent vanity thread about getting Lexus/Toyota's advertising pulled from Salon's site due to an article they ran on homosexual pedophilia. Hmmm - rummage, rummage, search, here it is:
Freeping Works! Lexus to stop advertising on Salon!(Vanity) ^
Get off the Barcalounger and do something. We got rid of Cynthia McKinney. The guy above hit Salon in the pocket. A few emails got Pepsi to pull their support for a thug. Pick something, and TAKE ACTION!
We need to stop celebrating awful people and start shunning them.Starting with statist censor-wannabes like Bill O'Reilly.
-Eric
Thank the boffins for Lemon Diet Coke. Open my veins these days and that's what flows out. ;)
Regards, Ivan
Whoever approved this stuff, should be flogged. It tastes like hell....
We don't have it here. I think I should be grateful. ;)
Regards, Ivan
I am assuming you live in Britain. Our daughter does and she tells me of her adventures with the health system there. Ghastly! If you are not in Merry England, ignore the socialized medicine reference.
It's very good. Coke has a winner with this one.
Thank you. I am well aware of the failings of the NHS, and went to my MP to demand it be privatised. I nearly went deaf in one ear due to the NHS not treating an infection when I was a lad.
I am assuming you live in Britain. Our daughter does and she tells me of her adventures with the health system there. Ghastly! If you are not in Merry England, ignore the socialized medicine reference.
I'm still here. As I've said on other threads, you'll pry me from my country when you remove its soil from my cold, dead hands.
Regards, Ivan
Grumpster replies; "Oh? Do you have biscuits and gravy?" (As millions of Freepers wait patiently in-line to accuse him of "thread-jumping."
To the subject at hand:
Making people of low-character into celebrities has been a trend in Western civilization for several centuries (and longer, I suspect). For example; “Billy the Kid,” “John Dillinger,” et. al.
Since the late 1960’s, the trend has been moving to a profound, and disturbing, new path. Now the trend is to celebrate low-character, morals, and behaviors.
What is truly disturbing in this new-age of celebrity worship is not that a person of low moral, physical, and spiritual character can be elevated to a stature or office beyond their character limits (i.e. Bill Clinton); But that when a person of perceived “wholesomeness” achieves celebrity status the devilish forces of liberalism are allowed and able to reduce that wholesome image downwards to the gutter.
Without commenting on her personal “character.” I give you Brittany Spears. Former “teen-idol;” former role-model for teenage girls. Just look at the past few years, with regard to this particular “celebrity.” Have we, or have we not, been witness to a voyeuristic orgy of contempt for “wholesomeness.” Even when she was 15 years old… the mongers of filth were working on her image by urging us to consider she was perhaps “not a virgin.”
Just something for you to consider….
Best wishes to you and yours,
-grump
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