Pepsi’s Mountain Dew has been having a rough week after they decided to drop Lil Wayne as their spokesperson and pulled Tyler the Creator’s controversial goat ad.
Lil Wayne may have released a poor apology to the Till family for his offensive lyrics in the “Karate Chop” remix, but that wasn’t enough to save the rapper from being dropped as the soda’s official spokesperson.
Lil Wayne’s face has been plastered all over every major Mountain Dew ad and the commercial featuring him encouraging others to just “Dew You” gets played on some major TV station every five minutes. Well, all that is about to change.
Rappers are simply unable to get away with their inappropriate lyrics, especially if they are backed by a major company such as Mountain Dew or Reebok.
While some people are convinced that this is a sign that big businesses are finding some sort of morals and are simply taking a stand against controversial lyrics in music that actually seems to be far from the case.
Supporters of the Till family praised Mountain Dew’s decision to drop the tattooed rapper, but the big business shouldn’t be treated as heroes – instead they are more along the line of hypocrites.
The “Karate Chop” remix was on the radio since early February and immediately made headlines ever since it was released. If Mountain Dew was really offended by the lyrics and felt like it wasn’t a good reflection of their beliefs they should have addressed it then. Instead they wanted to see if they could slide by unnoticed and that’s when the Till family showed up.
Not to mention that if Mountain Dew (or anyone else for that matter) really decided to do their homework they would realize that this isn’t even the first time Lil Wayne made the tacky reference to the teenage boy that was beaten to death for whistling at a white woman.
On “Da Drought 3” Lil Wayne had a song titled “Swizzy Remix” where he raps, “Beating up your block yeah I get my Emmett Till on.”
So perhaps people shouldn’t be too eager to praise Mountain Dew for kicking Weezy to the curb when they were really inspired by profits (or lack thereof) – not morals.
Meanwhile, Mountain Dew had yet another controversy to deal with.
Tyler the Creator has always been known for his strange antics, but his latest commercial for the Pepsi soda was deemed by some as possibly one of the most racist and offensive commercials to hit the air .
The commercial features a waitress wrapped in bandages and on crutches as she is asked by police to identify her attacker. Then the goat is seen threatening her and warning her that if she doesn’t keep quiet there will be some serious consequences to pay.
In addition to making fun of violence against women, others feel as if the commercial is racist due to the all-black lineup of suspects and the goats vernacular that suggests he is black as well. (Just for the record, the entire theory of the commercial is racist by stereotyping black men as criminals and thugs is being completed based on that very same stereotype when you claim that the goat must be black because of the language he is using. So technically you would have to embrace that stereotype to assume that the goat would ethnically be black.)
Anyway, no matter how you spin it the commercial is pretty offensive, tacky, and just not even funny.
While the attacks have been geared towards Tyler, however, Mountain Dew needs to be questioned once again.
The rapper they chose for the commercials has earned his fame off of outrageously controversial lyrics about drugs, beating women, sex, and more. The claim that Mountain Dew doesn’t want these things as a part of their brand seems a bit problematic when they are constantly seeking out men who fit that exact bill.
