... And the apology causes even more people to download the app.
The idea of the app is to allow guys to choose their 'type' of women from a whole host of female stereotypes; 'political girl', 'married' and my personal favourite 'trouble'. The backlash against the app is even less surprising considering how much the Apple review process is always deemed an unsuccessful filter model. I, a self proclaimed supporter of feminism, am certainly not surprised by the app, neither do I believe that it is sexist - it is simply aimed at a specific audience.
On the other hand there are obviously people who would object to such an app and I can't help but this that there would be a whole board room of people at Pepsi Co who wouldn't know this. Of course they would know this, and they were probably waiting to hear the amount of peoples disgust.
Two ways to guarantee your advertising will spread like a wild fire: Either make the adverts extremely funny so that they can be passed on through word of mouth; or make the advert controversial so that all the news networks will spread the story for you. An official [is Twitter an official source these days?] apology was issued via Twitter account @Ampwhatsnext. Whats interesting is that both @Pepsi and @Mtn_dew also posted the apology, thereby bringing the issue to people who may not have known about it at all. A clever marketing strategy indeed. Pepsi, I salute you!
Brilliant article covering the Amp iPhone app which has been branded as sexist - http://adage.com/article?article_id=139633
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