Did Pepsi really just try to make a cheeky soda ad about removing consent? Buckle up, bestie, because this is the most unhinged marketing disaster we’ve seen all summer, and honey, we are LIVING for the chaos.
So picture this: It’s Monday, July 6, and Pepsi’s social media team thought they were being absolutely genius when they posted this little gem on Threads: “Pepsi Wild Cherry is what happens when regular cherry stops asking permission.” I’m sorry, WHAT? In 2024, with everything happening in the world, someone at Pepsi thought comparing their soda flavor to removing consent was the vibe? The audacity. The lack of awareness. The sheer incompetence wrapped up in one tone-deaf caption.
The internet, as it should, absolutely went off. Twitter users, TikTok creators, and literally everyone with a functioning moral compass were dragging Pepsi faster than you can say “PR disaster.” People were genuinely concerned about the message being sent—even if it was supposedly just about cherry flavoring. Because let’s be real, the timing and word choice screamed problematic energy, and nobody was having it.
Within hours, Pepsi realized they’d absolutely fumbled the bag and deleted the post faster than your crush deletes their Instagram DMs. The soda giant then released an apology, basically admitting they weren’t thinking straight when they greenlit that mess. They tried to explain it was just innocent wordplay about soda flavors, but girl, that explanation fell flatter than a week-old cola.
Celebrity Twitter had a field day roasting the entire situation. Marketing experts were having full-blown meltdowns about how this slipped past multiple people at a massive corporation. Like, how many people saw this and thought “yes, this is the one”? The incompetence is truly staggering.
What makes this even more embarrassing is that Pepsi is supposed to be a brand targeting Gen Z and young millennials—literally the most socially conscious demographic. And instead of being witty and clever, they just came across as completely tone-deaf and frankly, gross.
The lesson here? Sometimes the simplest wordplay is actually the worst wordplay, especially when it involves removing consent—even if you’re just talking about fruit flavoring. Pepsi learned the hard way that you can’t just casually joke about consent in 2024. Period.
What do you think? A) Pepsi’s apology was sincere and they learned their lesson B) This was a deliberate stunt for attention and they knew exactly what they were doing