CONTACT PEPSI. Tell them to drop their 6A Sponsorship!

[mijan]

Please forgive the lack of an LJ-cut, but I want to get everyone's attention.  I'm sure you know about this by now:
http://news.livejournal.com/102286.html
(Make sure you've read the article on LJ-news before you do anything else.)  In response to the new Pepsi advertisements, V-gifts, and logos all over the place, in VIOLATION of LJ's customer contracts, I say we take a stand, and hit Six Apart where it counts.

I just got off the phone with Pepsi Customer Relations.  I told them that Pepsi's corporate sponsorship of Six Apart might be a very bad publicity move. I explained that Six Apart had, over the past several months, created a couple of nasty customer service snafus, leading to horrible customer relations. I mentioned how the last time Six Apart and Livejournal irritated us, we did a bit of a census to see how many of us were angry (do you remember "fandom_counts"?), and we raised a count of over 30,000 people in just a few short days. That's power in numbers.  As I continued to explain, I said that Six Apart is now violating customer contracts by placing advertisements on Paid Accounts, which is infuriating a lot of customers all over again. The advertisements they're using are Pepsi advertisements, which I'm certain hadn't been Pepsico's intent. I pointed out that I was sure Pepsi wouldn't want its own logo to be used in advertising that violated customer contracts. So, basically, we're getting spammed with Pepsi advertisements, which, if anything, is bad publicity for Pepsi, and could easily lead to people refusing to buy Pepsi products on principle. I didn't say that there was any boycott of any sort being discussed - however, I did say that it was enough to make me stop buyng Pepsi products, and it would probably have the same effect on other people as well.  In other words, Pepsi's own advertising campaign could backfire and give them negative publicity if they continue with Six Apart.

Pepsi is a large enough corporation that they don't need the headache of dealing with a corporate cockroach like Six Apart. If Pepsi smells bad publicity, they'll bail. I'm NOT, repeat NOT doing this to hurt Pepsi. (If you call Pepsi, make sure you do it with full awareness that this is not Pepsi's fault.)  Go into it attempting to persuade Pepsico to withdraw corporate sponsorship from Six Apart for their own corporate reputation.

So, in short, I suggested that it might bode well for Pepsi to get out of their corporate sponsorship deal with Six Apart as soon as possible.

Here's what I'm asking you to do:

CALL PEPSI.  Tell them what's happening with Six Apart.  Explain that 6A is violating customer contracts by placing Pepsi advertisements in paid accounts, and that customers of LiveJournal are angry - NOT at Pepsi, but at LiveJournal and Six Apart.  Tell them that it will look bad for Pepsi to continue advertising with Six Apart, and that Pepsi should withdraw their corporate sponsorship for their own good.  Again, don't be rude to the Pepsi people!  They have nothing to do with Six Apart's stupidity, and they probably don't even know about this.  Just pass on the information.

I didn't call the customer service line directly because I couldn't find it at first, but I got connected through the vendor's number.  I think THIS is the Customer Service line: +1(800)433-2652
Or the basic phone number for the headquarters:  +1(914)253-2000 That should connect you to anybody at the Headquarters, and I'd recommend this number most. 

Here's the link to a page listing their entire roster of Corporate executives and offices:
http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Company/OfficersDirectors/index.cfm

Here's their address:
Pepsi Customer Relations

Pepsico, Inc

700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577

(OMG... evilimp, you and your friends from your college can go directly to the office!  DO IT!  Seriously, will you???)


Also, for the UK:
PepsiCo United Kingdom
    1600 Arlington Business Park
    Theale, Reading
    Berkshire, RG7 4SA UK
    44-118-930-6666
    Salman Amin
    President

And most importantly... TELL YOUR F-LIST!  Feel free to copy/paste all of this information.  Pass it on.  Flood Pepsi with phone calls.  Hit Six Apart where it hurts the most.  Six Apart wants to piss off their original source of income - their paying customers - so we'll remove their shiny new source of income.  Come on, we're fandom.  We can do anything.  Who's with me?

Comments

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

I... I hate to say it, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Pepsi made a deal with Live Journal/Six Apart, not with LJ/6A's customers. It's not up to Pepsi to make sure LJ/6A honors its promises to its customer base. Yes, dozens of corporate conglomerates threatened to pull their sponsorship to MSNBC when Imus made those racial remarks, but this isn't even in the same county, much less the same ballpark as that incident. People boycotted Exxon after the Valdez incident, and last I checked, especially after the multi-billion dollar merger with Mobil, they're doing just fine.

If I go to my local supermarket to buy my diet wild cherry Pepsi, and they're constantly sold out, I'm not going to call PepsiCo to demand, as an irate customer, they make sure Waldbaums supermarkets has my diet wild cherry pepsi in stock. If I have a problem, I call Waldbaums and complain. Granted, when Coca Cola changed the formula for Coke, millions of people complained. To Coca Cola. Because that was an issue with the company itself.

If people want to boycott Pepsi/Frito-Lays/KFC-Taco Bell, etc., then that's their right of course. If you want to tell Pepsi that LJ renegged on their promise to their paid customers, that's fine, too. (though I should note that it says right on the news page that paid customers won't see the sponsored copy attached to the gifts.) But to scapegoat Pepsi when it's LIVEJOURNAL that made the deal, when it's LIVEJOURNAL who renegged on its word

If the mood theme offends you (general you), and people on your flist are using it, then force your mood them on your flist, or ask the person using it to not use it, or defriend them. I have people using mood themes that I'm not particularly fond of, and some journal layouts hurt my eyes as well as my sensibilities, but who the hell am I to tell anyone what layout to use on their journal or what mood theme to choose? If you don't want to receive Vgifts, then tell your flist not to send them to you. You can't send the Pepsi ones anonymously.

I just... I don't think this is the right way to handle it. People are unhappy with Livejournal/Six Apart, and yes, with good reason. But this smacks of skirting the issue. If people are unhappy with the service LJ is providing, with its new rules and the implementation of those rules, then as a customer, you leave and take your business elsewhere. Plain and simple. When my dry cleaners raised its rates, I went and found somewhere cheaper. I grocery shop more at Stop & Shop now than I do at Waldbaums. I didn't like Ford, so when I bought a new car, I bought a Jeep.

The problem is, people are comfortable here, they like the perks, we've built our community here and we don't want to leave, but that's not really Pepsi's issue either. They made a business deal - money in exchange for advertising, and to be honest, it's a pretty good deal from a business standpoint. And I wouldn't be surprised if LJ/6A is getting more money from Pepsi than from all of our paid accounts combined.

The problem we have is with Livejournal, and Livejournal's choices and decisions, and while I understand why letting Pepsi know that we're upset is a valid avenue, I honestly don't think it's going to make one iota of difference. The Better Business Bureau is the place to lodge a complaint. Boycotting Pepsi feels... trite. Do you know what I mean?

[mijan.livejournal.com]

My intent isn't to boycott Pepsi! I think you read me wrong here. I'm not calling Pepsi to bitch at them at all. I'm calling them with the approach of letting them know that they're advertising with/sponsoring a corporation that is violating their contracts with customers.

Pepsi is a company with a HUGE world market. There are no small advertising venues that they "need". If they find out that one of the companies they sponsor is pissing off customers, they'll pull their sponsorship faster than you can drop a hot potato. So, I'm not calling Pepsi to say "We're boycotting you because you're sponsoring Six Apart!" I'm calling Pepsi to let them know that one of the companies they sponsor has horrible customer relations, and is USING the Pepsi logo in the violation of their customer contracts. It's an FYI to Pepsi. Pepsi doesn't care about LJ, but they do care about sponsoring companies that make them look good.

Make sense? I hope I seem like less of an idiot/villain now.

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't think you're an idiot. Hell, it took a lot of gumption to call Pepsi in the first place. I just don't think it's going to amount to LJ changing its ways. I mean, okay, from the looks of things, LJ is trying to "clean up" to make itself more attractive to corporate sponsors. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but the adverse effect has been, well, everything that's been going on. Heh.

But Pepsi is a huge world market, as you say. Do they have a history of pulling their sponsorship in this manner? I mean, we're essentially saying to them "Hey! We're paid customers at LJ and being paid means we're not supposed to see your advertising, but your products are being shoved in our faces by surreptitious means and we don't like it!" Um....

I just... I don't think they care about the paid customers, because they're all counting on revenue to come from free and sponsored accounts, and those accounts outnumber paid and permanent by a ridiculous amount. (Not to mention by using adblock, free and sponsored accounts can get around the ad thing.) So I think there's a disconnect there.

With regard to the boycott though:

We're going to stop drinking Pepsi and purchasing Pepsi products. We're going to avoid anything sponsored by Pepsi. We're going to tell our local restaurants and retailers to stop carrying Pepsi.

Isn't that a boycott, or the threat of one?

[mijan.livejournal.com]

What I actually said to the lady on the phone was that it could have that effect on some of the people who are seeing these things. I told her that I, personally, will refuse to buy a product if I get spammed by their advertisements, etc., and I know other people will react the same way. I was hoping that the potential for customer loss would motivate Pepsi to see a real reason to pull their sponsorship.

You're right though. At the risk of appearing to backpedal, I'll remove that part.