Pepsi's Amp app will no longer 'help' men seduce women [Updated]
The soda company created an iPhone application called "AMP UP Before You Score" -- aimed at helping men "score" with women -- to promote its AMP energy drink.
The application provides pick-up lines and other charming tools to seduce a "wide" variety of female stereotypes -- 24 in total -- including the bookworm, the cougar, the athlete and the women's studies major. It also has a "Brag" feature which encourages users to "include the name, date, and whatever details you remember" about successful hookups or failed conquests.
PepsiCo, the parent company, announced today that it will remove the application after it received heated criticism for stereotyping women, according to the Associated Press.
The blog Edible Apple decided to conduct some tests. It downloaded the application and selected the "foreign exchange student." These pick-up lines followed: "Let's try a little cultural exchange" and "I'll be your host family anytime." According to the blog, the "Goth" girl had an entry filled with "dreary quotes" and the "Indie" girl had a built-in "Thrift Store Locator."
The Reflector, a Mississippi State University online newspaper, argued that the application, while stupid, emphasized men's infirmities.
"There's virtually no guy out there who genuinely believes women are objects -- the average guy's sense of humor just stopped developing after he hit puberty, and that kind of thing is still funny to him," the article said. It suggested that ladies give the application a break and focus on more pressing and pertinent issues.
Jezebel, a popular female-focused blog, had a few choice words to say about that.
PepsiCo, however, reportedly said in a statement that discontinuing the application was the "most appropriate course of action" after "listening to a variety of audiences."
[Updated at 11:25 p.m.: An earlier version of this post stated that Jezebel argued that the iPhone application was not sexist. In fact, the blog was quoting an article from a Mississippi State University online newspaper and disagreed with the article’s position.]
-- Melissa Rohlin
Shame on them! This is an intrusion on the rights of the men who enjoyed this ap. Women should mind their own business.
Posted by: D | October 22, 2009 at 06:47 PM
This is a load of CRAP!! I'm sick and tired of people's insecurities and need to control other people's speech and though leading to suppression of other open minded people's fun and humor. If you find this sort of thing offensive DON'T BUY IT. Go sit in your little melancholy corner of mediocrity and leave the rest of us alone. It is GOOD to be offended, it means you're still alive, still thinking.. you NEED to be offended from time to time. I shudder to think of a world so homogenized that no one is ever upset by off-color humor. Get this: christian priests are rapists, muslims hump camels and jews store their hoarded pennies in their huge noses. Women shouldn't drive, men can't piss without hitting the seat and I laugh my atheist ass off at the thought of retarded children fighting. I hope with all my heart that I offended as many people as possible because you know what, this censorship imposed by the court of public outcry OFFENDS ME. Let me decide for myself what to amuse my self with. I'm thrilled that I managed to download this one before it got pulled and I'm beside myself that I didn't get a chance to download baby-shaker. That sounded hilarious, you know why? I don't like babies. Oh, and IT ISN'T REAL, SO IT DOESN'T MATTER.
Posted by: Rich | October 22, 2009 at 10:54 PM
I think people really need to lighten up a bit in life. You know. Its a silly app. I do see that some woman could take it the wrong way I do see that. But I also see this as just a silly app to help Pepsi sell some soda by having their logo visible on it.
People have to lighten up and not take everything so seriously all the time. You really think this thing is going to affect how men view woman or help them decide who they want to date in life? If only things were so easy like that. If anything it will give them a quick chuckle and nothing more. Wow what harm it does.
Sad that people forget how to have fun and not get hurt by every little thing so easily. Everyone micro analyzing everything until everything becomes subject to scrutiny and review before we can allow it. If a company wants to make a app for woman to judge men go for it. You won't hear me or anyone else complain. I can promise you that. This country is just too uptight. Lighten up people. Life goes by very fast. Let folks have a bit of fun. Anyone getting hurt by things like this are just way too over sensitive. Sheesh.
Posted by: PantheraLeo | October 23, 2009 at 05:41 AM
I swear that at the current rate of social engineering, humor will be completely lost in two generations.
Posted by: David | October 23, 2009 at 06:55 AM
whats an iphone??
Posted by: mogwai | October 23, 2009 at 07:34 AM
No one whose thoughts are worth contemplating is objecting to the basic idea and the lines themselves, which are pretty funny. What Pepsi probably concluded not to be a great idea was the (parodic) suggestion that guys should put in the names of particular women and share them as a 'score' (what I think, reading these reviews, is the "Brag" feature). It's hard to believe that there are grown humans out there so stupid as to take this app. seriously enough to do that, but it's possible, say, a hormone-stricken pubescent boy might not realize the whole thing is a spoof, and start sharing the names of every girl who ...( well, whatever it is such kids are imagined to do). Since hormone-stricken pubescents (and their college-age equivalents) are alas the prime targets of these things, THAT feature might well have 'sealed the deal' (as it were) for the lawyers at PCo.
Posted by: jad | October 23, 2009 at 07:53 AM
Guess that just leaves LittleWingman! :D
http://tinyurl.com/mp9nss
Posted by: Rob Frankel | October 23, 2009 at 08:36 AM
Once upon a time there was this space, a block of years, here on earth that we called The Sixties. During that time Led Zeppelin sang a song called “Communication Breakdown,” never did I think such a gap in communication would become such a profound reality.
It was a time of vibes where you met the person inside the body you spoke to. A realization occurred in the course of an exchange when two people touched the spot of understanding in each other, it was like a bell rang, and thus the phrase “I hear you,” was born.
Picture a time on a parallel universe where people become so overly communicated that they can’t even speak to one another. Picture masses walking around with their ears closed in by plugs playing loud music to block out all the natural sounds of the world that create our characters. Picture these people holding a gadget in their hands that one can use to connect to the internet so they are not out of touch for even one relaxing moment.
Imagine people who for generations were raised by nannies forgoing all practical forms of communications as they grew up. Reductions in the communication process have now brought this new species to conversing by texting with these hand held gadgets that by the way are also telephones. It has become much more non-committal to text rather than speak. Is it any wonder that this new species is a weak group?
Perhaps this will evolve full circle and the next phase will be communicating with vibes only. That would be a positive step, but would this new species after so many reducing years know how to read vibes?
Picture all of this, naw, never mine, save your precious imagination for something more possible.
http://johnmolinari.blogspot.com
Posted by: John Molinari | October 24, 2009 at 04:40 AM