Pepsi’s Creation Museum Ad Results In Boycotts

Pepsi’s Creation Museum ad is resulting in backlash from consumers. The ad, seen on the back of a Pepsi delivery truck and shared on Reddit, has quickly gone viral, and consumers are calling for Pepsi to end any connection with the museum, where exhibits claim to show that evolution never happened and humans lived side-by-side with dinosaurs.

It began Thursday morning, when redditor rustyfencer shared the photo on /r/atheism.

“Pepsi is supporting the Creation Museum, so I’m no longer supporting Pepsi[.]”

Many redditors demurred, pointing out Pepsi’s positive efforts in diversity and acceptance, as well as connections to more legitimate scientific endeavors. Others joined in, sharing letters they had written to Pepsi’s Corporate address, calling for a distancing of the company from the Creation Museum.

The concern about the Creation Museum relationship grew, though, spreading out from reddit. The following comments are a small sample of the many appearing on Pepsi’s Facebook page.

“What the heck, Pepsi? It’s the 21st century, you should know better.”

“Will no longer support Pepsi due to their relationship with the creationist museum.”

“Saw this on the Internet. Does the Pepsi company really support the Creationism Museum? Why would any responsible company support this kind of anti-science garbage? Until I learn otherwise, I will not be purchasing any more Pepsi products.”

Of course, Pepsi, like most larger companies, partners with a wide variety of other companies — not to promote a worldview, but to maximize profit on the company’s products. It’s also reasonable to recognize that, in general, the Creation Museum would be exactly as eligible to partner with Pepsi as a more mainstream religious organization, or one that was anti-religious. The Creation Museum would be exactly as eligible for partnership as a museum of science.

While companies do reject partnerships over ideological differences, the Creation Museum has already cried religious discrimination in the case of the state refusing to offer tax bonuses for its Ark Park, and choosing not to partner with Ken Ham over his religious beliefs (and propagation) could result in litigation (though likely unsuccessful).

It’s also relevant to recognize that local distributors often have advertising relationships that do not reflect the views of the company as a whole, and that, to all appearances, one Kentucky distributor is hosting this ad — PepsiCo is in no way endorsing the Creation Museum on a large scale.

At this time, Pepsi has not responded to requests for comment.

Is Pepsi’s Creation Museum ad troubling to you?

[Photo Credit: rustyfencer]