Mountain Dew Ad Pulled Amid Cries of Racism, Sexism

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Pepsi-NOW-Box-O-LogoPepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) is backpedaling from a recent ad for Mountain Dew.

The ad — which one critic referred to as “arguably the most racist commercial in history” — was created by hip hop artist Tyler Gregory Okonma, ABC News reports.

The ad features a goat, known as “Felicia”, standing in a police lineup that features the members of Okonma’s rap group Odd Future. In the ad, a woman tries to pick out a criminal from the lineup while the goat threatens her. “I’m going to get out of here and do you up,” the goat says, menacingly.

The company is being criticized because every member of the lineup — except the goat — is black. Boyce Watkins, a professor from Syracuse and a long-time critic of hip hop culture, says, “Of course, in the world of Mountain Dew, every single suspect is black. It appears that Mountain Dew is right on board with the degradation and disrespect for the entire African American community being pursued by the worst in the hip-hop community.”

In a statement, PepsiCo said, “We apologize for this video and take full responsibility. We have removed it from all Mountain Dew channels and Tyler is removing it from his channels as well.”

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2013/05/mountain-dew-ad-pulled-amid-cries-of-racism-sexism/.

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