SAFE MEDIA RELEASE

10 February 2012

NO MORE BULL FOR PEPSI

Animal advocacy group SAFE congratulates Pepsi New Zealand for listening to customer concerns by withdrawing its ‘Bromitment’ competition prize that would send the winner to the running of the bulls event in Spain.

The running of the bulls is an annual spectacle of torture where bulls are jabbed with sharp sticks to whip them into a frenzy and the panicked animals are then stampeded through crowds of people. The terrified and exhausted bulls are later herded into a bullring where they are stabbed to death.

SAFE used it’s social media networks to let Pepsi know that supporting animal abuse is not acceptable and hundreds of people, both in New Zealand and internationally posted their disapproval of Pepsi’s ill-conceived competition on Facebook.

After initially refusing to budge, Pepsi today gave in and apologised. “Given the overwhelming response from you and many others, many of you will be pleased to hear we are pulling the running of the bulls option from the competition. Yes, we misjudged and for that we apologise unreservedly”, says Aisha Daji Punga, Pepsi’s Commercial Director of Frucor New Zealand.

“SAFE is pleased that Pepsi made the right decision to distance themselves from this animal cruelty spectacle”, says SAFE campaign manager Mandy Carter. “It is disappointing that a company like Pepsi decided to get involved with this sort of abuse in the first place but we congratulate the fact they recognized their mistake and made amends for it”.

SAFE hopes that the Pepsi debacle will send a strong signal to other companies that supporting animal abuse for promotional purposes is unacceptable and will backfire on the company”.

ENDS

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