Open Debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

I do not think Pepsi intended for this commercial to be offensive. I can see a few ways in which society may deem it as offensive - one pertaining race, the other pertaining to gender.

The race issue comes out at the end of the commercial. The African American woman attempts to hit her husband with a Pepsi can because he looked at a white female “interestingly.” The can ends up hitting the white female and the couple flees the scene. Some might say that the commercial is capturing what African Americans commonly commit hit-and-run crimes or that African American men are more attracted to white females.

This brings me to the next point of examination, gender. The African American wife constantly treats her husband cruelly. Females may think that this commercial is saying they are hostile towards their husbands. It could also be interpreted that females are becoming more dominant in households to the point that they are oppressing men.

A classmate of ours, to me, stated it correctly – this commercial can be offensive if people want it to be. Though there are some possibilities that it was meant to be offensive, the overall humor and advertisement of the product suggests it was not meant to be. The commercial is titled “Love Hurt,” and, the way I see it, the couple is only happy together when they are drinking a Pepsi Max at the same time. But, the commercial ends with the couple leaving together after the white female is struck in the head by a Pepsi can. So, like my classmate said, the commercial can be offensive if the viewer wants it to be.

30 Seconds to Outrage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

Face value is something that is becoming altogether extinct. For thirty seconds during the Super Bowl the ad executives at Pepsi made us laugh. They highlighted a few problems any successful couple faces, hit someone in the head and pitched their product. They even probably thought that casting a black couple as the stars would put them well out of the crossfire of any bigotry or stereotype debates that were sure to rage on about several ads from the Super Bowl.
Alas, how wrong they were. After people watch the spot over and over and really stew over a history of racism and sexism in the United States, everyone is so upset by a few seconds of TV they seem to think it actually matters.
The point is: none of the serious issues that the commercial deals with are funny. Spousal abuse isn't funny, racism isn't funny, assault isn't funny, or nor is leaving the scene of the crime. But that's not what the commercial is about.
The commercial plays on problems that transcend gender and race. The commercial speaks to us about an overbearing partner, or a partner reluctant to change for the better. It speaks about the wandering eyes of men and the seductive nature of young women. Must of all it addresses the problem of finding a beverage that is both low in calories and rich in flavor.
In short, anything can be considered offensive if its turned over and over enough times and seen from so many angles one never wants to see it again. That's not what these ads about. They're meant for thirty seconds of mild amusement, not deeper analytical thought.
Perhaps the whole country would be well served to remember that.

The Commercial Is Not Meant To Be Offensive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

I personally did not see the Pepsi Max commercial as being offensive, but humorous. While I can see where some people may be offended I believe that Pepsi’s goal was to make a funny commercial to appeal to its audience. It is true that humorous commercials are really popular right now. Sure the main characters of the commercial were African American, but it feels as though this was done to add adversity to their commercials (I believe that Pepsi aired another commercial during the Superbowl featuring a white couple).

Though I did not find the commercial offensive, I think that it was said best in class (by Reed I think) that the commercial can be offensive if you want it to be. However, this can be said about a lot of advertisement. There was a mention of a stereotype of African-American women being mean and/or angry. When I watched this commercial I was unaware of this stereotype, but now that it is present in my mind I am still saying that this is not the case. I am sure that everybody can agree that the wife would not be that extreme. Therefore, I think that Pepsi’s intention was just to make the commercial funny.

Pepsi Max Commercial: Too Sensitive These Days

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

The Super Bowl is an iconic day where sports and social media come together for a night of entertainment. Super Bowl commercials are just as exciting to watch as the game itself. These commercials are aimed to entertain and get the attention of the viewing audience, promoting their product and name. However, sometimes these commecials, as funny and entertaining as they can be, can be controversial and offend certain viewers. In class, we discussed the Pepsi Max commercial, where an african american husband is dominated by his african american wife, and at the end of the commercial they come together when they share a Pepsi Max. Before the end of the commercial, a young, attractive white girl is jogging and he looks at her and smiles. The wife gets jealous and throws the can of Pepsi at her husband, the husband ducks, the can hits the white girl in the head, and the couple then runs away. Now, we discussed in class a Yahoo! article where the writer said how this commercial can be offensive. I can understand how this commercial can poke fun at certain stereotypes of african americans and african american women specifically. But I think that this commercial is absolutely harmless. I feel as though people are becoming way to sensitive when it comes to compaines making these issues more comical. I understand that some commercials go a little far, but for the most part, the Pepsi Max commercial is simply entertaining. It bothers me when people try to find more meaning in something than what is really there. A commercial is meant to target the greater viewing audience; I find it hard to believe that Pepsi Max would deliberately promote a stereotype when its sole purpose for the commercial is to make people buy there product. Let's not look so deep into these commercials for meaning that isn't there.

Oversensitivity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA
The commercial presents an overbearing wife constantly critiquing her husband's dietary habits. When they finally seem to agree on something, the fact that Pepsi Max is delicious despite having zero calories, a new problem is presented in the form of a jogging woman that is presumably younger than the wife. The wife hits the woman with a can that was aimed at her husband, then the couple runs away because they assaulted someone. Now, that does not seem to be that important; however, the couple is black and the jogging woman is white. With that addition, the commercial begins to offend some people. The overbearing wife becomes the angry black wife. The jogging woman becomes the jogging white woman. The husband's wandering eyes fall upon the attractive white woman instead of the attractive younger woman. The focus of the commercial becomes racial insensitivity rather than a mediocre commercial advertising Pepsi. The can hitting the woman at the end is one of the images that causes some offense to people. However, the couple could have easily run away because the wife assaulted someone and did not want to get in trouble. However, because the woman that threw the can was black and the woman that got hit was white, the views change. She did not run away because she hit someone and wanted to avoid a confrontation or assault charges, she ran away because she hit a white woman with a can and thought that it was a cardinal sin. The commercial should just be taken at face value; the advertisers wanted to sell a product, so they made a commercial.

Pepsi Max and the Continuing Racial Debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

At first blush, the commercial seems to play to a racial stereotype. But I wonder if that's the case only because we use a racial lens through which to view this ad. From a national standpoint, the debate rages on regarding whether we are a racially conscious or racially blind society. Indeed, the Supreme Court has weighed in on these issues extensively. In fact, I'd like to evaluate the Pepsi ad within the context of a comment by Chief Justice Roberts in his opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District #1. In that case, the Court considered the constitutionality of busing students from the suburbs of Seattle into the inner city in order to achieve racial balance within the inner city schools. Faced with the question of whether such a practice constituted racial discrimination, Roberts' replied simply that "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." The comment proved to be controversial. In fact, Associate Justice Sotomayor said outright that Roberts was "wrong." To Sotomayor, the U.S. still has significant racial issues to deal with. And I'd like to evaluate that claim with respect to this ad.

Some claim that the ad plays to a racial stereotype of a black woman lording over her husband. The kick under the restaurant table, the bar of soap in the bathtub as punishment for eating a cheeseburger, and the "up-down" of the white jogger all, allegedly, cater to that stereotype. Perhaps it's overly-simplistic to ask the question of whether we would raise any of these questions at all if the couple in the ad was caucasian. But I doubt we'd be asking the same questions. After all, would a white woman react any differently? I think the signs in this ad appeal more to the marital dynamic in general rather than the marital dynamic among a particular race. So, on one level, Justice Roberts has it right. If we take off our racist lenses, we avoid creating the problem we wish to avoid. But Sotomayor also has a point. The fact that we still have those lenses and that these questions pervade our psyches means that we may still have work to do with regard to race relations in this country.

We're all trying too hard, here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09z8lwOEYA

I feel like as a whole people tend to look to hard for things in media. A lot of people just search for something to deem as offensive and raise trouble about. Unfortunately, doing so tends to ruin the fun of things. For example, clearly this Pepsi Max commercial is full of racial stereotypes, however; this is not done so in any sort of offensive manner. The commercial is done in such a way that only humor should be taken from this. Consider the audience that the commercial has been made for. This commercial debuted during the Super Bowl, a time that commercials almost have to be funny. That is the entire point of Super Bowl commercials, to be funny. Of course, these stereotypes could be seen as offensive if they are taken out of context. The controlling wife, the guy that just wants a healthy snack, the blonde bimbo, and finally the African-Americans running away after knocking out the white girl. Yes, these could all be offensive; but again, only if you take them out of context. Just like when stand-up comedians use these stereotypes, Pepsi is blatantly using stereotypes for the sake of humor. Why? Because stereotypes are funny and poking fun at them is fun. The commercial is turning many negative stereotypes into something to laugh about. If anything, Pepsi has provided our culture with a step forward. The best way to get past differences is to laugh about them, not take them so seriously. Clearly Pepsi has just figured it out before all the people that want to cry over nothing.