Does anyone not dislike Amp's iPhone app?
Pepsi's Amp energy drink is taking a beating for its new iPhone app, called Amp Up Before You Score. The app is supposed to help you score with 24 different types of women, which has some people upset over sexism and others over stereotyping. What types of women are listed, you ask? Twins and the Sorority Girl, of course, but there's also Married, Trouble and separate entries for Indie Rock Girl and Punk Rock Girl. What really ticked Jezebel off, however, is the app's suggestion that you brag about your conquests via Facebook or Twitter. In fact, the app wants you to keep a Brag List. Amp and Pepsi have already apologized via tweet. (In a bold move, they even included the #pepsifail hashtag.) A lot of blog space has already been wasted explaining why women won't like this app. What I want to know is whether it will do anything for the brand. Think of how many brands out there purport to help you score. What about this app sets the Amp brand apart from beer ads, or even Italian jeans ads? —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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October 13, 2009 in Amp, Controversy, Cullers, Food and drink, iPhone, PepsiCo | Permalink |
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My guess, unfortunately, would be that many men will like it, indeed. Our world has no shortage of insanity.
Posted by: Mark Figart | Oct 13, 2009 12:27:28 PM
Awesome! On target.
Posted by: David M | Oct 13, 2009 12:27:45 PM
unlike a lot of people complaining about this, I actually downloaded it. Yes, it is actually very funny and well done. Maybe in slightly poor taste, but have you ever seen any movies, tv shows, magazines, other ads targeted at men, or anything else in our culture?
Posted by: kimball | Oct 13, 2009 12:32:22 PM
it's interesting... not one blog, or article that i've seen has approached the target demo to see what they think of the app. If Adult women were the target demo, then this would be a huge miss. But they aren't, and as others have noted there's nothing revolutionary about this positioning/messaging for a product aimed at young men... Beer... Axe... etc...
Posted by: Jack | Oct 13, 2009 1:35:38 PM
How is this any different than the much celebrated Axe Gamekillers?
Pepsi had nothing to apologize for, imo.
Posted by: JB | Oct 13, 2009 3:30:00 PM
It's pretty funny, and certainly not worth getting worked up about.
Posted by: darth | Oct 13, 2009 9:57:20 PM
I am an energy drinking 18-35 year old male and I think it's f%&ing awesome!!!
Posted by: Josh | Oct 13, 2009 11:19:15 PM
"How is this any different than the much celebrated Axe Gamekillers?"
It doesn't encourage men to sleep with women and plaster the details across public social networking sites?
Posted by: Kate | Oct 14, 2009 6:03:51 AM
I'm an energy-drinking 18-35 year old as well, and I'm livid that Pepsi released this. I'm furious at their implicit assumption that this is how I think about women.
Posted by: Rick | Oct 14, 2009 8:25:39 AM
I am not a feminist, I am not a liberal, I do lean to the conservative side, I am not easily offended....I find the easily offended offensive....but I was saddened when I saw this add. It is teaching our men to become desensitized, which will impact a real loving relationship with their future wives. I am discouraged to see where young men are headed in this country, instead of being the leaders of their families, they are encouraged to become leaders of the pack.
Posted by: Mary | Oct 14, 2009 8:25:55 AM
If you are offended by this, then no, you can't call yourself "not easily offended".
This is a funny app and people just need to realize that it's not a "guide to women in America today".
It's a freaking soft drink application! Let me go drink some Mountain Dew now and scale my office building.
Wait, that encourages extreme behavior and the marketing is going to put my little Timmy in danger. Ban it!!! Protest it!!!
Morons.
Posted by: James | Oct 14, 2009 8:49:08 AM
WOW, wish they had this when I was younger. Great way to compartmentalise the female receptacles!!!!
Posted by: Art Jenkin | Oct 14, 2009 9:02:52 AM
Oh please people - get over yourselves and get some thicker skin.
Like women don't do that exact same things about me.
Get a grip and spend your time and enegry worrying about something that really matters.
Good grief - there are a lot of real problems in the world. This app is not one of them.
Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2009 9:20:05 AM
I meant to say "Like women don't do the exact same things about men." Not "about me". Haha. "Paging Dr. Freud"
Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2009 9:23:01 AM
I think it's freaking awesome. makes me want to go get an iphone just so i can get that ap.
Posted by: Leon | Oct 14, 2009 1:46:03 PM
The copywriter on this at RGA is a woman. And a liberated feminist. And I kid you not, a true hottie.
Posted by: a reluctant fan | Oct 14, 2009 5:08:49 PM
This app is great, actually hilarious, and I definitely will be buying AMP as a thank you to the brand for entertaining me. Not only does it entertain, it does it in a very clever and witty manner, so props to the team who came up with it. My fiancee of 3 years totally agrees, she would be the 'Princess', and we (along with everyone in the room) couldn't stop laughing as we read the info aloud...
Next, I think it would be great if AMP did one for the ladies to use (chicks like Energy drinks as well). Now just imagine the meathead, the nerd, the boy toy, the sugar daddy...The meathead would feature places to go like sports bars, common facts like hall of fame winners, updated game scores, etc... Plus all of these are very commonly associated terms for guys, and oh, look, no one gets all upset about this because there is no PC monitor when it comes to making a stereotype of men...
The real truth is that most of the people who have gotten so upset about this should really check this app out before getting so worked up because the info found is actually very useful and not degrading to women in any way. Get over it... Go Pepsi!
Posted by: RJ | Oct 15, 2009 4:43:12 PM
This thing is freaking awesome! I not only got it for myself I downloaded it to my girls iPohone, even though she does not know it yet, and I will encourage all my friends to do the same!!! It is really funny, I would never have known about it, until I read the WSJ article by Valerie Bauerlein & Suzanne Vranica, two women who are pathetically out of touch, and should have their journalism privileges stripped for writing such a hopelessly biased article. The article suggested the public hates the app, and everyone dislikes it, when in fact the polls suggest it is highly favored, and will have favorable results for not only Pepsi, but the agency responsible for the app as well. Can women do anything without injecting femminism and emotion into the equation? When I read the WSJ piece, before I even looked at the authors' names I knew it was written by defamatory feminist pigs! Good luck gals! Hey, did you all know the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows?
Posted by: Jake Lesbofemanator | Oct 15, 2009 10:27:39 PM
I don't think everything on the app is offensive, some things are actually quite funny and could maybe be useful. I don't like the title of it being "Amp up before you score" because it does give the impression that it is simply a tool for men to use in order to get laid and brag about it over the internet. I also find it horrendous that it has an app for married women. Is it really right to be advertising something that supposedly helps men "score" with a married woman? Isn't there enough infidelity and divorce in this country without receiving any help in the process?
Posted by: Tiffany | Oct 16, 2009 1:29:08 PM
That idea of making a man version of the app is great, I don't have any problem in someone poking fun at a stereotype of me, what low self esteem these women seem to have if they're offended by an app like this... My girlfriend totally laughed at many of them... The only thing I wouldn't encourage is the "brag" section - that was really lame.
Posted by: hamilton | Oct 19, 2009 8:30:30 PM
Now that the Pepsi creative team has weighed in in the above posts, what does everyone else think?
Posted by: PepsiSchlock | Oct 19, 2009 11:58:09 PM
Okay I really don't understand the problem Pepsi has always marketed to men with half naked women so how is this APP any different than most of their commercials. What is the big deal with this app anyways it was obviously meant to be a joke that most people would download simply because its funny (thats why it was FREE if they thought it would be used as actual wingman they would have charged for it because guys would pay for a decent wingman.) Thanks to the ranting and ravings of closed-minded people now its not even possible to get the app. Trust me I've been trying. I want the app because its absolutely hilarious and whether its presented in a sexist way or not its actually quite useful. If you were talking to a vegan wouldn't you want to know where vegan restaurants are? Or if you were talking to a rocker might you want to look up a few top rock songs as an icebreaker for conversation. The only real problem with this app is the Brag list that is entirely unnecessary and i don't agree with that aspect at all. But considering most guys who would use this feature will do it either way is it really that big of a deal that Pepsi thought ahead and included it?
Posted by: John Catron | Nov 17, 2009 1:16:28 PM
