Bob's House

all this preening about how great PepsiCo is for being inclusive, but there's no getting around the fact that the "PepsiCo values" shown in the behaviour of the characters is extremely rude. Maybe next they'll feature some characters *****ing on all the lawns in the neighborhood in order to pick out the one homeowner who has no sense of smell.

i'm not sure it's any less rude than many americans who, when confronted by a deaf person will do one of two things (on average): ignore them completely, or shout / talk louder, on the assumption the deaf can hear, but only if you make it loud enough... you know: 2 + 2 = 5, but only for large values of 2?

it's a joke, and pepsi plays it decently... yes, in real life, this could be considered rude, but we're not told what time of the day this is: 8pm is less rude than 2am, especially if it only happens once in a great while.

of course, the fact lights are out in the entire neighbourhood lends more credence to the later end of time...

Its only a joke! Plenty of jokes are based on things that annoy people... And the passenger is cringing at his mate's idea.

Deafness is on a continuous scale, of course, and I belong somewhere on the cusp of what is labelled "profoundly deaf", so I hear louder sounds, but generally can't make out what they mean without more input. (The actors in the commercial are probably "fully" deaf and most likely "capital-D" Deaf if you know the distinction.) Following on from travelgirl's comment about talking louder, one thing I have experienced several times after telling a sales assistant or cashier that I can't hear them because I'm deaf is for them to speak to me as if I'm a little kid, as if I were mentally disabled rather than deaf. It always tempts me to point out to them that I have a Ph.D. Just to see the reaction, of course... :-) Most people are pretty good, its just the odd kid who hasn't been taught or needs a little more life experience.

The ad is clever I suppose, though, as with most ads, certainly not a way to act in real life. Of more concern is Pepsi's attempt to look like a "caring corporation" while mistreating workers, brutalizing the enviroment of developing nations, selling cola with a side of pesticide in India, etc., etc., etc.

As such statements shouldn't go w/o citation (a bit dated though):
http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/corpwatch?q=pepsi&is=corpwatch…

i'm not sure it's any less rude than many americans who, when confronted by a deaf person will do one of two things (on average): ignore them completely, or shout / talk louder, on the assumption the deaf can hear, but only if you make it loud enough...

Be sure to let us know when PepsiCo or any other major corporation displays such behaviour in a laudatory fashion in a nationwide commercial.

I'm glad you posted this since it either wasn't aired in my region or I completely missed it. Thanks.