Petitions Revisited

Our readers may remember our mention last Friday, about the prospect of a Super Bowl advertisement that would have been offensive to the Faith. Well, our appeals to the company in question got a response:

Thank you for contacting us at PepsiCo to share your sincere thoughts.

We want to reassure you that the commercial you cited was not one conceived and produced by PepsiCo, and it never aired on television. Rather, it was a consumer submission in our web-based Crash the Super Bowl promotion, in which participants can upload their own 30-second spots for Doritos tortilla chips or Pepsi MAX to be considered for broadcast during Super Bowl XLV.

We announced the contest finalists this morning and this consumer submission is not included in that selection. We hope you are further reassured to know that this consumer submission will not be aired during the Super Bowl, nor will it be included in any other Doritos or Pepsi MAX marketing programs in the future.

We apologize if you were upset or offended by this consumer submission, and we will share your feedback with our marketing teams so they can be aware of your concerns.

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

PepsiCo Consumer Relations

I'm not one to brag, but could it have been the reminder that Catholics are 24 percent of the population that did the trick? We may never know. But we do know that it is possible to appeal to the better nature and civic responsibility of corporations. There is the quick profit in the short term, but there is also consumer confidence in the long term.

Laudetur Jesus Christus!