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Pepsi launches sleazy "Before You Score" iPhone app
Pepsi just put out a new iPhone app to promote its energy drink brand, AMP, but it already seems to be backfiring. The app is called "AMP Up Before you Score," and it gives guys tips and lines for picking up different types of girls. As girl-oriented blog Jezebel astutely points out, the "types" are part of the problem. It's 2009, and we're still breaking women down into 24 different clichés? Give me a break, Pepsi. For an extra-sleazy touch, you can use Before You Score to post about your successful "scores" to Facebook and Twitter. I can try to see the other side of this - it's so over the top that you can't take it seriously, and it has to be a fun joke, right? - but it's not really fun or funny. Way to use technology to move society backward, major soft-drink manufacturer! You don't have to take my word for it, though. This one-sentence review of the app from a female friend of mine tells you everything you need to know: "I wonder if it tells you how to remove your shoe from your esophagus if you screw stuff up?"
[via Jezebel]
Comments
18
Subscribe to commentssodapopOct 12th 2009 6:18PM
LOL considering that kids these days are giving out sexual favors like handshakes, not sure if this is even an issue. Sure this upsets some women, but some other women are tired of double standards and want to get their groove on. Who's the feminist and who's sexist here?
Jay HathawayOct 12th 2009 6:29PM
I do wonder what the response to an equivalent "How to Pick up Men" app for women would have been. Or even better, a "How to Pick up Men" app for men. Progressive, or still gross? Hmm.
Rocketboy_XOct 13th 2009 12:35PM
If there was a How To Pick Up Men? Nobody would care.
RichOct 12th 2009 6:39PM
How to pick up men:
Hi
that simple :P
kojo87Oct 12th 2009 7:56PM
no kidding. now if only some of them would actually try that line on me...
gmbyronxviOct 12th 2009 7:19PM
Oh no! Feminists all over the world are going to freak out! To hell...
dmondmOct 12th 2009 8:35PM
24 sterotypes?! Your, right. It should be at least 38.
JimiisamaOct 12th 2009 11:15PM
Yeah, come one! It's 2009! And women can still be accurately divided into 24 stereotypes? Step it up with some diversity, women! There should at least be 50 kinds of you by 2010!
Joe SchmoOct 13th 2009 1:07AM
Wow are you kidding me? Bro culture? This is the biggest load of feminist bull crap I have ever read.
The age group this app is targeting (high school and college kids) is dead on. Go to a college and find that a great majority of WOMEN even classify themselves into groups. Whats the point of joining a sorority if you don't want to be classified as a different person or group?
Also you would be hard press to find girls who do not classify boys into categories either. Jocks? Frat boys? Nerds? Partiers? Drunks? Idiots? Smooth talkers? Lazy good for nothings? Come on the list goes on and on and the fact is both men and women (of course not all of them) strive to be put off certain images about themselves to their friends and classmates.
So I guess shame on Pepsi for pointing out what goes on every day across school campuses? So how about we admit that their is a equally shallow chick culture as well bro culture, instead of just pretending like their is only one.
RickyOct 13th 2009 2:22AM
Wow... am I reading this right? You're all defending this app? Bro culture, indeed.
Thank you Jay for trying to be a good person, but such endeavors, it seems, are doomed on the internet.
It's also interesting to me that neither the DLS article nor the Jezebel article says "feminist" but everyone is saying that it's the ridiculous feminists making a big fuss over nothing.
enerGIOct 13th 2009 2:40AM
It cant be as bad as the Pepsi Chat-up Holly Valance game on MSN Messenger lol
GemskiOct 13th 2009 2:43AM
It's supposed to be funny. If it isn't to you, ignore it. Here is another tip, if you wanna really get upset over stereotypes check out these things called commercials, comic books, video games, and television shows!
RileyOct 13th 2009 3:59AM
You're a fat dumbass who listens to Limp Bizkit and masturbates furiously every night to hentai in your parents' basement. Ooops, that was supposed to be funny. Just ignore it. I was just going off of your profile picture, so everyone else ignore this, too.
Excellent solution, by the way, ignoring everything bad that doesn't apply to you. If only the world lived by your simple rules!
GemskiOct 13th 2009 4:52AM
You're implying this is *doing* something bad to people. It's a form of entertainment, meant to be humorous. This, like many television shows, movies, music, etc just aren't meant for everyone.
But I guess there is no point in arguing that. I bet all the entertainment you consume is considered safe and politically correct. That idea is further reinforced by implying masturbating is bad.
RileyOct 13th 2009 5:26AM
And your argument is that the various forms of entertainment are unable to do anything to people or cause them harm in any way?
If tomorrow's episode of SNL had a "funny" bit about, say, your ethnic group that treated it like a disposable group, easily scammed into doing what you want, and that what was said also reinforced several negative stereotypes already prevalent with your (historically oppressed) group, would it still be a "form of entertainment, meant to be humorous"? What about blackface comics? Amos and Andy? Harmless, meant to be humorous, so it's OK?
Also, just because a lot of other forms of entertainment are crap doesn't mean when someone takes issue with a specific one we should all excuse it simply because of how crappy everything else is, right?
I think you're severely underrating the power of mass media and its effects on people.
My point wasn't to say that masturbation is bad, by the way. Limp Bizkit, on the other hand...
underwater.owlOct 13th 2009 5:16AM
Gemski, don't you think it is doing something to people? It encourages boys to brag about their sexual conquests online, with no regards for the feelings of the women they're trying to sleep with. I'd say encouraging that was pretty harmful.
GemskiOct 13th 2009 6:00AM
I guess I don't think gangster rap creates gangsters, or violent videogames create school shootings, or homosexuals on TV changes ones sexual preference.
Anyway, that ends up being a bigger debate.
I guess if enough people bother Pepsi about it they'll pull or censor it. They could also just get a lot of free press over a silly app.
Bill O'Reilly did manage to get them to drop Ludacris' endorsement deal before. Fight the good fight and whatnot.
PickMeUp GirlOct 18th 2009 3:35PM
This is ridiculous. Women brag about their conquests day in and day out. What do you and your friends talk about over coffee? What size he was, how he was, what his face did when you touched his....
We are shameless around eachother. And yes, we stereotype much worse. Read Cosmo or Teen or Glamour for one day. Check out the articles that teach women how to get any type of guy. How to snag a millionare. How to schmooze a musician. Because, according to us, stereotypes are all that matter in making a guy look twice.
We are the 'bro' culture in female form.
So either stop objectifying MEN or take a moment, breathe deeply and realize dating isn't meant to be so serious. Giggle once in a while. It's funny. It's hilarious when someone sits down and asks, "come here often?"
I don't understand the fuss. Sex happens. Lust happens and dating, in general, happens. Let's take a moment and think about how serious this situation actually is.
For the rest of my thoughts read www.pickmeupgirl.com. Fancy that, I write about guys picking up girls. And yes, people laugh. And no, I never feel sexist or guilty. I'm a hard core, furniture building, heavy box carrying, feminist artist.
But I'm not going to make a mountain out of a mole hill.