Why You Should Boycot Pepsi

If you are like me, these days you are trying to spend your money very carefully. You are asking “What is the best deal?” “Is this the best way to spend my money?” “Is this something I need right now, or something I can do without for a while?” These are all good questions to ask, but how many of us are also asking “Which company is doing the most good?” “Which company is not participating in racist, sexist, or even down right RUDE behavior?” Probably not many of us, but we should.

We should care if our hard earned money, that we spend so carefully, is being used by companies to promote products that could be dangerous to women, children, or anybody for that matter.

Take for example, Pepsi’s new iPhone app “Amp up before you score”. The premise is that men can enter in the type of woman they are trying to meet and the app will give them some hints and pick up lines to use. Then the men are able to keep up with how they are doing using a scorecard, adding names, dates, and comments to Facebook and Twitter on something called a “brag list”.

Not only is this sexist, rude and not even remotely funny, it could be downright dangerous and damaging to women. First by saying that all women can be placed into one of twelve categories, then by letting guys think that all they need is a cheesy pick up line that was computer generated to “get the girl”. And lastly the ability to easily place information about how easy or difficult it was to pick up certain women, along with their NAMES on public access computer forums. It could all get very bad, very quick.

Not to mention that using the word “score” in the name allows a man to think that it is an easy way to get sex from women he just met. Dare I say it could even lead to situations of rape? Where a guy thinks that he used the correct line given to him by his iPhone, she should want to sleep with him and when she doesn’t, he just takes it.

I am ashamed of Pepsi for coming up with something so horribly offensive in the name of humor. Yes, they attempted a half-hearted apology over Twitter, but as of this morning, you can still get it downloaded to your iPhone. (I checked)

So what I think normal, rational people should do is boycott Pepsi until this denigrating program is no longer available and they have offered a proper apology. Don’t let companies that think it’s funny to make fun of and potentially harm women have any of our money. You worked hard for that money – don’t let it be used for evil!

Clark Kent (don’t make me find a phonebooth)

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