Pepsi Leaves Bad Taste In A Whole New Way

In what may be an identity thief’s wet dream, an ad agency has created a Pepsi machine that dispenses cans in exchange for Facebook likes.

Did you catch the sinister, Orwellian note to the end of that video?

And thanks to this new way of sampling we know exactly who liked, tried, and enjoyed an ice cold Pepsi.

Pepsi may as well add “and we know where you live.” To earn yourself some colored sugar water, you enter your user credentials for Facebook directly into a giant touchscreen mounted on the front of the vending machine (you can also like the machine, which is an ominous turn of phrase, via smartphone). No word on what Pepsi or the ad agency intend to do with the data you enter in, but there’s a horrifying chance that two companies whose mission is to sell you crap may use that data to market to you.

“I am shocked, SHOCKED to find that market research is going on in here.”
“Your user data, sir.”

That’s the best case scenario. There’s no word on how your passwords are stored or anything else. Plus, there’s the angle of operant conditioning (originally formulated by B.F. and his famous rats). Teaching people that they will be rewarded by giving up their personal data is dangerous conditioning. Considering how easily new things become normalized in this day and age, I don’t think I’m being too alarmist or hyperbolic when I suggest that this is a sickening and potentially frightening concept.

Full disclosure: I don’t drink much soda anymore, but when I do, I drink the Whole Foods 365 store brand and I do so because it tastes like Coke. Pepsi tastes like sugared rat pee. Don’t ask why I know what rat pee tastes like. I have led a full life.