Real men don’t need Pepsi’s “Amp Up Before You Score” iPhone app to meet women. And they treat women better, too.
What caveman came up with the idea to use an iPhone app to offer pickup lines and track female “conquests” that could then be posted to the user’s–in all senses of the word–social networking pages? Isn’t there a jail someplace for these people?
And what happened to Apple’s approval process for iPhone apps, that sometimes does and sometimes don’t seem to stop “bad taste” apps like this one?
PepsiCo, which owns the energy drink brand the application is promoting, has fallen over itself apologizing online, but is still offering the app for download.
“Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail,” the company said on Twitter.
Enough already. Take the app down and then your apologies will actually mean something, besides that someone in Pepsi’s corporate communications department has graduated from a “crisis marketing” class.
The Amp application depicts more than 20 stereotypical women and offers tips for how to pick-up the woman and “score.” Mission accomplished? Add her to your “Brag List.”
You might imagine that many women find this offensive and are smart enough to know that Pepsi, Aquafina, Mountain Dew, etc., are all co-owned brands. Men find it offensive, too.
You don’t have to be an energy drink swigging Neanderthal to protest this lunatic promotion–which Pepsi said is supposed to be humorous.
The joke failed, it is time to move on. Pepsi needs to become a better corporate citizen and understand that viral marketing can become viral condemnation.
Me? I will be drinking Coke products for a while. Care to join me?
David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.