The ladies at Skepchick have brought this bro-tastic commercial for Pepsi Max to our attention, as it features a man and his friends who fake the apocalypse in order to trick a woman into sleeping with one of them. Classy!


Pepsi, you'll remember, is the same company who released the charming "AMP Up Before

You Score" app earlier this year, which encouraged men to run game on various female stereotypes and then report their conquests directly to Twitter. PepsiMax seems to be taking a similar approach, presenting itself as a super-rad diet drink for bro-dudes who just want to fake the end of the world and guilt women into having sex with them under false tragic pretenses. That's so refreshing, brah! It's like, we can watch our calories and be misogynistic assholes all at once! High fives up top, y'all.

As Tracy King at Skepchick notes, "I am not lacking a sense of humour. I am not known for political correctness. But hello? If you make a woman think she is about to die in order to have sex with her, that is a bit rapey." King goes on to note that the woman clearly says no at the beginning of the commercial, but is manipulated later on by the fake apocalypse report presented by the bros, who then go on to celebrate their "clever" victory by dancing around and drinking diet soda. Whoops! Sorry ladies! Your right to say no is no match for a ridiculous elaborate date rapey scheme put together by three dudes who drink low-cal pop!


It's ridiculous enough that Pepsi feels the need to brand PepsiMax as a "manly" alternative to the likes of Diet Coke or Coke Zero, but to do so in a manner that also paints women as brainless objects to be manipulated and "won" just adds insult to injury. There's nothing funny about three men concocting an elaborate lie in order to get a woman to take her pants off: it's actually just embarrassing and gross and extremely pathetic.

So what do you think, commenters? Effective marketing, or just another example of bro-culture and misogyny being used to push products?

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Pepsi Max: A Bit Rapey [Skepchick]

Earlier: Pepsi Releases iPhone App To Help Men Score With Women And Brag About It On Twitter