Pepsi 'Pickup' App Has Anger Bubbling

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2009 2:33 PM CDT
Pepsi 'Pickup' App Has Anger Bubbling
A Pepsi truck.   (AP Photo)

The blogosphere is buzzing with opprobrium for a promotional iPhone app. “Amp Up Before You Score,” as in Pepsi’s energy drink, gives guys tips on how to, well, “score” with different types of women. The advice ranges from banal—compute your carbon footprint to hit on “the treehugger”—to raunchy. “The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows,” goes a suggested pickup line. “I wonder what else she shaves.”

In perhaps the sleaziest twist, the app encourages users who do, in fact, “score” to post details via Facebook and Twitter, notes the Wall Street Journal. Pepsi is blasé. “Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women,” the company tweets. “We apologize if it's in bad taste.” The beverage maker isn't sorry enough to pull the app, however. Says one industry watcher: The app “is pretty edgy, but I guess its value is proven by the fact that we're talking about it.” (More social networking stories.)

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