'US is world's middle finger'....Pepsico president

[Roxy66]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1115173.cms

WASHINGTON: Students graduating from the Columbia Business school MBA class of 2005 may have expected some fizz in a commencement speech by Pepsico president Indra Nooyi, an Indian-American acclaimed as one of the most powerful corporate executives in America and a putative CEO of the soft drink giant.

But a political critique of the United States in course of her remarks has left conservatives frothing and stoked some anti-immigrant sentiments.

In her address last Sunday, the Chennai born Nooyi compared the five major continents of the world to the five fingers of the human hand.

First was Africa - the pinky finger - small and somewhat insignificant but when hurt, the entire hand hurt with it. Next was Asia -the thumb - strong and powerful, yearning to become a bigger player on the world stage.

Third was Europe - the index finger - pointing the way. Fourth was South America -the ring finger -the finger which symbolises love and sensualness.

According to some students who were present at the graduation ceremony and who fired up the issue in the blogosphere, Nooyi then reserved the remaining finger for the United States (and not North America, they say), launching into "a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world."

They say she then went on to make "condescending" remarks about America's role in the world and how it is "our responsibility to change the current state of world opinion of the US and make the other fingers rise in unison with us as we move forward."

WOW!!!

[tk2kewl]

1. Do hear a wingnut boycott on the way?

[Roxy66]

2. Oh..I'm sure Bill O'Puky will be at the helm...

[stellanoir]

3. wow

sounds like she know a bit about Vedic palmistry as well. Cool.

[malaise]

4. A Brilliant analogy

Dumbya is using dat middle finger to tell the world you know what.
Where's that photo of Bush showing the middle finger????

[Roxy66]

11. Oh yeah...that would be a perfect fit here.

anyone have it?

[Lisa]

22. this (unphotoshopped) one?

http://www.broadsides.org/mt/000660.html

[malaise]

23. That one

Thank :D

[knowbody0]

5. the analogy is beautiful

thanks for posting

[seg4527]

6. i almost always buy pepsi anyway

with coke and the columbians and stuff.

now instead of just feeling good about not buying coke, i can feel good about buying pepsi. :)

[Roxy66]

13. "Diet Vanilla Pepsi" addict here.....

[tk2kewl]

19. me too. pepsi is superior to coke

[personman]

7. hmmph...

maybe I'll start drinking pop again...

[BlueEyedSon]

8. kick

[donco6]

9. Make mine Pepsi.

[IChing]

15. boycott coca cola anyway

but a brave statement

[Cha]

10. How right she is!

And how unexpected for her to point it out.

[Just Me]

12. WOWIE!!! That took GUTS!!!

Hope she keeps her job!!!!

WOW!!:patriot:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. Pepsi comes in blue cans...

and Coca-Cola - red.

Coincidence?

[Roxy66]

16. LOL!!!.....Love it!

[Shoeempress]

17. Don't drink soda, gonna buy some Pepsi

[madrchsod]

18. made my day!!!!

how about reccomending for the front page so the freepers can enjoy our posts? it`s a pepsi for me!

[Roxy66]

20. RED -VS- BLUE....

[LiberalPersona]

21. Please don't support Pepsi based on this

Did Pepsico not support Bush in the election? I believe it did.

[faithnotgreed]

27. perhaps like so many others, they are seeing the shadow descending

i dont know who pepsi supported but reading this is encouraging

[applegrove]

24. Good for her. She knows where her customers are. They are

people everywhere. At the some corporates are waking up to how dangerous Utopian are to all brands and all business.

It would take a bunch of **** drinking & emotionally challenged ideologues to ignore the value of "goodwill".

I'm sure many corporations did not plan on having their customers tribally divided into the religious/neocon/American empireists and normal people.

Having to choose between one half of the market and the other was not what corporations had in mind.

Lets hope they bite back in the elections to come and fund the democrats, think tanks that dream, and fight with humanity instead of against it.

[warrens]

25. OMG

I drink a lot of Pepsi anyway, but this locks it up. That is hilarious.

[hippiegranny]

26. reading that made me thirsty

I think I'll have a PEPSI :)

[understandinglife]

28. Maybe a bit of back-peddling .....

PepsiCo’s global president and chief financial officer (CFO), Indra Nooyi today sought to clear the air over the controversy stirred up by her analogy equating the United States to the middle finger by stating that her comments were misconstrued and depicted in a different context as unpatriotic.

“As part of this illustration, I assigned five of the world’s continents to the different fingers and thumb. I refer to North America and particularly the U.S. as the middle finger because it is the longest and anchors every function the hand performs. The middle finger also is key to all the fingers working together effectively. That is how I view America’s place of importance in the world,” Nooyi said in a statement.

“Although nothing could be further from the truth, I regret any confusion or concern that I may have inadvertently created. I am proud and honored to call home is a “promised land” that I love dearly. I would never say or do anything to detract from our great nation and its people who have done so much for so many, including myself,” she added.

link: http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=189433

I'd say the neoconified Bu$h.com, formerly known as America, is the entire hand actively grabbing everything it can and crushing anything that gets in the way.

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Be it MNA Day 3 or 8 or 15 or .... the day will come when 10s of millions of Americans and others stop their typical activities for 24 hours and urge 10 times that many to join should another MNA Day be required. On that glorious day what we once called "America" will emerge.

[AirAmFan]

29. As John Belushi used to say in SNL skits, "No Coke, Pepsi!", from now on!

[Frederik]

30. Ha ha

I love it.

Thumbs up (for Asia!) :thumbsup:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

31. the people bitching are the ones who should agree with her metaphor.

i mean these people are the types that support the basic principle of america flicking off the world. why are they disagreeing? that's the image they intend. im confused now. are we supposed to believe that all of the sudden they have a conscience and are concerned with how we appear to the rest of the world?

[AndyTiedye]

32. Yoo Hoo, Mountain Dew!

[AntiCoup2K4]

33. Where was Richard Nixon on 11-22-1963?

At a Pepsi board meeting in Dallas TX. Pepsi was very upset with the Kennedy administration's failure to overthrow Castro in Cuba, because they had a great source of cheap sugar under the right wing Batista regime.

PepsiCo also is a huge corporation which controls Frito-lay, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC and other fast food/junk food companies which peddle fat, cholesterol, and high fructose corn syrup to America.

They ain't your friends. Far from it.

[newscott]

34. Thank God my wife's a Pepsi drinker!!!!!

[Moderator]

35. Roxy66

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[Miss Chybil]

36. Like my mom used to say...

"If the shoe fits, wear it."

[Alpharetta]

37. this is disassociation from America. a corporate strategy

I knew Coke deserved a lower growth multiple due to reduced overseas potential in the face of anti-American sentiment as a result of Bush's misadventures.

It makes sense to me that Pepsi identify itself as an INTERNATIONAL brand instead of an AMERICAN brand. Coke may end up doing the same thing.