I don’t understand the brouhaha over the Pepsi ad. Yes, it’s cheesy but it’s an ad, not a philosophical treatise. The idea of breaking through isolation and getting together with people, even if delivered a bit naively, is a good one.
But most importantly, if you have the time to write a long screed about the lack of social value in a Pepsi ad, your time would be better spent figuring out why you are such a superficial, silly person.
Just another ad that attempts to appropriate political struggle to sell sugar water.
Actually, when I saw the ad, I snort laughed, because it was so ridiculous.
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I had to watch the ad without the sound but I’m sure there was no political struggle there. Are these different ads? The one I saw was about joining the carnival.
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No, the signs the people in the crowd are carrying are supposed to be vaguely protest themed (Peace signs, “Join the conversation.”). (There’s no wall of cops in riot gear at an outdoor concert which there is in the video). The song is supposed to sound vaguely Bob Marley-ish, but it’s not: it’s by his grand-son, Skip, with lyrics like these:
Yeah, if ya took all my rights away
Yeah, if ya tellin’ me how to pray
Yeah, if ya won’t let us demonstrate
Yeah, you’re wrong
Yeah, if ya thinking I don’t belong
Yeah, if ya hiding behind a gun
Yeah, if ya hoping we’re gonna run, run…
The shot where she goes up and gives a Pepsi to the cop is supposed to measure this one
Although if it looked like a carnival to you, that just says a lot about the protests.
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Ok, yeah, the song makes it really shitty.
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The ad is stupid, but I’m impressed that the usual suspects (Salon, Slate, & etc.) have managed to sustain their freakout over it for over a week now.
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Oh, it’s been a week? I just saw the ad, so I had no idea. I saw a freak out about it on a conservative website and discovered that it existed.
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Yeah, the ad is dumb and a little insulting – corporations will grab on to anything if they think it gets you to spend more. But its just about as dumb and insulting as most ads are, so I don’t really get the brouhaha.
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I still like the idea of breaking through the alienation, though.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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