Pepsi deletes ‘stops asking permission’ post after criticism over consent

Pepsi has apologized for and deleted a controversial post promoting Pepsi Wild Cherry after facing backlash online. The post in question was criticized for appearing to make light of consent, with some social media users claiming that it supported rape culture.Pepsi has deleted a post that was seen as promoting rape culture. (AP)Pepsi’s problematic postOver the last few days, Pepsi has been promoting its Wild Cherry flavour on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Threads (which is owned Meta).On Tuesday, the official account of Pepsi shared a post on Threads which read: “Pepsi Wild Cherry is what happens when regular cherry stops asking permission.”The post drew widespread backlash online as users condemned it for promoting rape culture. Critics argued that the post joked about consent and wondered how Pepsi even agreed to share the problematic post.“This is sickening and durbing. ‘Stops asking permission’ isn’t a clever marketing line to me— it’s making light of consent,” read one comment online.“The copy shouldn’t have been done because for 50% of the population, 50% of potential consumers asking permission does trigger the rape allegory and that should have been considered and enough to say: hey we don’t want to alienate 50% of our consumers. Or it was considered and they knew no press is bad press because we haven’t talked about Pepsi this much since the Jenner peace ad,” another person wrote.(Also read: Kendall Jenner hides face as she returns to LA after Pepsi ad fiasco)Pepsi apologizesPepsi has now apologized for the post and deleted it.“Our recent Wild Cherry post landed in a way we never intended. We hear you, we’re sorry, and the post has been deleted,” the company said in a post shared on X.However, even the apology did not appease some critics. “They’ve deleted it, but Pepsi making a rape joke in the middle of this Platner mess is really something else. How does it even get approved in the first place?” asked X user Mike Nellis.Some, however, claimed that there was nothing wrong with Pepsi’s original post.“Yeah, I think this was supposed to be a play on ‘ask forgiveness instead of permission.’ People get too easily offended nowadays,” wrote one X user.“I’m sorry, I’m just not going to buy that Pepsi was posting out rape culture jokes, as some have implied. The “wild” alongside “stops asking permission” clearly implies that their intention was about celebrating rebellion not about encouraging people to not be concerned with consent,” another said.