Emily
Mike
PepsiCo is known for being one of the very few Fortune-500 companies headed by a female CEO, (Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, who also happens to be a woman of color). But the company has been in the news for far less feminist reasons. PepsiCo’s new iPhone App for its Amp Energy drink features different “scoring tips” for men to use on stereotypes of women, as well as a way to “brag” about your conquests on Twitter or Facebook.
The two things that really bother me about this are (1) forcing all females into 24 hackneyed stereotypes and (2) reinforcing this culture of viewing women as victories or conquests.
The different “types” of women to choose from include: Women’s Studies Major! Cougar! Foreign Exchange Student! Oh– and Twins!
Before anyone says, “But it’s just for fun!” or “It’s a joke,” I know that it’s not supposed to be serious. But it doesn’t have to be serious to be damaging. I agree with the reasoning on Jezebel:
This is a program sponsored by a major corporation that encourages men to look at women as objects to be won, used, and tossed away after a “victory” is obtained, and the more normalized things like this become, the worse off we’re all going to be.
It’s obnoxious, and “boys will be boys” isn’t a legitimate excuse. Jezebel ends the analysis, I think, pretty well:
It would be nice to turn on the television one day and not see some dude completely dehumanizing women as a part of some asinine “game” in order to promote deodorant or soda pop or body wash, but I guess there isn’t an app for that yet.
PepsiCo has since “tweeted” their apology, saying it was in “bad taste,” although no word on whether or not they’ll pull the app. Bad taste may be one thing– but it’s part of an under-acknowledged part of culture that treats women as objects, marketing ploys, and freakish stereotypes, and treats men as stupid.
Filed under: Advertising, Pop Culture, Sex Tagged: | apple, iphone, pepsi, sexism
