Pepsi Suicide Ads

In late 2008, advertisements for Pepsi's low-calorie beverage, Pepsi Max, garnered criticism on several message boards for what many considered to be an insensitive treatment of suicide. The print ads feature a cartoon-style bean-shaped blue "calorie" character apparently attempting to take his own life.Ad Age: Pepsi Opens a Vein of Controversy With New Suicide... (December 2, 2008)

1. One of the ads features the calorie with a noose around its neck, holding a gun in one hand and a bottle of poison in the other. There is a splatter of blood trailing from the character's head and a bullet in the upper corner of the poster.AdGoodness: Pepsi Max advertising/design goodness
2. In another advertisement, the character is holding a bloody razor blade in its hand while strapped to a rocket plummeting toward the ground. What appears to be a bottle of pills is also falling from the sky and a few of the pills are inside the character's mouth.AdGoodness: Pepsi Max advertising/design goodness
3. The third poster shows the calorie sitting below a bucket of acid, holding a match in one hand and what appears to be a can of gas in the other. What looks like a homemade fuse is taped to the character's head.AdGoodness: Pepsi Max advertising/design goodness