Today, I'm thankful I'm not a soda pop drinker.
I'm dating myself, but when I was a kid, there was a television commercial for Pepsi with a lively jingle that implored listeners to "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi generation."
As I've inferred, that was a long time ago. My, how times have changed.
Now it seems that the President and CFO of Pepsico views the North American continent (she means the U.S.A.) as the middle finger, at least for the purposes of enlightening Columbia University business graduates in a commencement address.
My class's commencement speaker, again in the nostalgic past, advised graduates to remember that God has called us each by name. Granted, it was a Catholic university. But the secular colleges used to have commencement speakers who encouraged graduates to strive, achieve, accomplish, and succeed to the limits that our great nation allows, as no other on the planet.
But in this case, the newly graduated are informed that their country is nothing more than a global flip-off. How inspiring.
There's more going on here than malice, ignorance, or manipulation. I suspect that the bottom line here is money. My brother-in-law, a decade ago downsized out of Pepsico, at that time had reason to believe that the company's marketing strategies and business plans were tilting in Asia's direction. It could be that Pepsi feels secure enough in its growing Asian niche to diss the home turf. If so, how stupid--and shortsighted, and ungrateful, and unconscionable.
This is conjecture; I may be completely wrong. I'm simply trying to make sense out of something so deliberately offensive and insulting as to be inexplicable. Hugh Hewitt has extensive and thorough coverage of this story; I urge everyone to read it.
I'll wait to hear what Steven S Reinemund, Pepsico's Chairman of the Board andChief Executive Officer, has to say about this. Meanwhile, I'll stop buying Pepsi products, which include the Tropicana, Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Gatorade brands.
I usually pack a can of powedered Gatorade in my care packages to Iraq. Not this month. My adopted Marine can drink Kool-Aid for now. Maybe from now on.
And I'm ready to write my own version of a jingle:
"Get a clue! Your Pepsi's in degeneration."
