Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Boycott Pepsi?

At a commencement speech at fallen ivory tower Columbia University, hotbed of radical Islam, anti Americanism, anti-Semitism, the President & Chief Financial Officer for PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, let this anti-American bilge slip out of her fat trap:

This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, the United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg up in global business since the end of World War I.

However, if used inappropriately -- just like the U.S. itself -- the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I'm talking about. In fact, I suspect you're hoping that I'll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I'm not looking for volunteers to model.
Discretion being the better part of valor...I think I'll pass.

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. -- the long middle finger -- must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand...not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. -- the middle finger -- sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand -- giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers -- but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

Link to full transcript here: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2005/nf20050520_9852.htm?campaign_id=topStories_ssi_5

Of course, she claimed it was all a misunderstanding (http://www.pepsico.com/msgfromindra.shtml ), but the US as a “middle finger to the world” ? We know exactly what you meant, Pepsi Lady…

Pepsi now has the above explanation on the top of their website, flagged as an apology http://www.pepsico.com/ …nervous about the repercussions, boys? You should be…

The JerseyNut is now a man of Coca-Cola products only… !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This happened like two weeks ago. let it go. the woman made a mistake. she apologized. can we move on now?