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. 12

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. 34

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. 12

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. 56

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." 567