![]() ![]() ![]() If PepsiCo had created an ad for Mountain Dew, for example, she said it might not have been considered edgy or cool. Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing firm based in Atlanta, said companies that want the “street cred” of a celebrity may end up losing control of the message they want to convey. Last month, Reebok also ended its relationship with Rick Ross after he rapped about giving a woman a drug to have his way with her. In fact, Mountain Dew also was criticized recently because of its endorsement deal with Lil Wayne, whose rap lyrics compared a rough sex act to the tortuous death of Emmett Till, a black teen who was murdered in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. But the controversy over its latest spot illustrates the fine line that companies must walk when trying to be hip. Yesterday Wayne sort of apologized to the Till family for using the name of Emmett Till in an "inappropriate" lyric in his guest verse on rapper Future's song "Karate Chop." The apology was not accepted.Mountain Dew, known for its neon colour and high caffeine content, is generally marketed to younger men and sometimes attempts to have edgier ads. The controversy comes as Mountain Dew's endorsement deal with Lil Wayne causes more problems for the company. We have removed the video from all Mountain Dew channels and have been informed that Tyler is removing it from his channels as well." A PepsiCo spokesperson tells Ad Week, "We understand how this video could be perceived by some as offensive, and we apologize to those who were offended. The ad has been pulled from Mountain Dew's website and YouTube is pulling copies of it as soon as they appear. This doesn’t even include the fact that the company has put black men on par with animals." Their decision to lean on well-known racial stereotypes is beyond disgusting. Mountain Dew has set a new low for corporate racism. Boyce Watkins calls it "arguably the most racist commercial in history. The officer then takes a sip of the beverage. Toward the end, the goat threatens her to “keep your mouth shut.” The woman begins to yell repeatedly, “I can’t do this,” followed by a sequence of shrill “noes” as she hops out of the room. “I don’t think I can do this,” the woman says, visibly frightened. ![]() A voice-over for the animal says in a menacing tone: “It’s me. The waitress, who is white, is stricken with fear as she looks at the men and the goat. The goat taunts the woman with phrases like "snitches get stitches, fool," "keep your mouth shut" and "I'm going to get out of here and do you up." It gets worse- from the Times: The ad features members of the music group Odd Future and a goat forming a police lineup for a battered woman. The other controversial ad is for Mountain Dew, which hired Tyler Okonma, known as Tyler, the Creator, a hip-hop producer and rap artist, to create it. (The vehicle is not sold in America because heroin users here were offended by the car's name.) Okay that's a stupid joke, but what's NOT a joke is the ad's old-timey music, which references China "as 'the land of Fu Manchu' where girls say 'ching, ching, chop-suey." This offended Asian viewers, and after an awkward attempt to edit it, GM has decided to pull the ad altogether: The GM commercial, which aired on Canadian television and online throughout Europe, was for the Chevrolet Trax. General Motors and Mountain Dew are doing desperate damage control this week after two commercials sparked allegations of racism. ![]()
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