The Pepsi Permission Fight

Pepsi's deleted Wild Cherry post became the day's X fight because one line, "Pepsi Wild Cherry is what happens when regular cherry stops asking permission," was read by critics as a consent joke and by defenders as a clumsy rebellion gag. 1 2

The cover centers the disputed wording and two real X reactions: @CoreOfMidas wrote, "I went to the quotes and wasn't disappointed to see i wasn't the only one thinking "Pepsi just threated its drink will rape us"" at 21:05 UTC on July 6, and @SGautreau29553 posted, "@Not_the_Bee 1.5 million views and only 537 likes. Damn- that’s brutal 😂" at 08:12 UTC on July 7. 3 4

The timeline follows the post from July 6, through quote-post backlash on X, to coverage from Primetimer at 06:43 UTC and USA Today Network at 13:31 UTC on July 7. Primetimer said some users claimed an earlier version used "for consent" instead of "permission," but that claim could not be verified. 2 1

Critics argued the copy made light of consent; defenders argued the words were being stretched into the worst possible meaning. The third card keeps those positions separate and cites the actual posts used in the quote boxes. 5 6

Sources used for the quoted X reactions: @DizTheDumm at 00:51 UTC on July 7 wrote, "Oh this is getting fucking immortalized. Pepsi Wild Cherry, the rape soda. https://t.co/Qr7tmQ4rp7"; @SatireAP at 01:13 UTC on July 7 wrote, "@pepsi Don’t make me switch to Coke because we find out y’all were on Epstein Island or something https://t.co/lGRXpWqPJ0"; @40YrsFineTuning at 03:01 UTC on July 7 wrote, "Love how @pepsi puts out a silly post about Pepsi Wild Cherry and online idiots immediately tie it to rape. 🙄 https://t.co/lTyKqM8bGj." 5 6 7