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Bloggers Finger New Victim: An inept analogy by PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi prompted a storm of criticism
Business Week ^ | 5/20/05 | Diane Brady

Posted on 05/21/2005 12:33:44 PM PDT by Cableguy

For a glimpse of the blogosphere's growing power, witness the brouhaha now afflicting PepsiCo (PEP ) over comments earlier this week by President and CFO Indra Nooyi before the graduating class of Columbia University's B-school.

Her comparison of the five major continents to the five fingers on her hand -- with the U.S.(not a continent, mind you) being the controversial middle finger and Africa the often-ignored pinkie -- will strike many as entirely innocuous.

As she put it: "Each of us in the U.S. -- the long middle finger -- must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand…not the finger…. Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand -- giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers -- but instead scratching our nose and sending a far different signal." (Click to read the full text of her speech.)

Yet a burst of blog outrage after a May 15 commencement speech has forced the beverage and food giant to post an apology on its home page. That follows an earlier statement from Nooyi in which she restated her love of this "Promised Land" of the United States and protests that she "would never say or do anything to detract from our great nation."

STINGING ASSAULTS. Perhaps Nooyi should have known her remarks would grab attention. She is, after all, is one of the darlings of Corporate America -- a savvy and often witty native of Madras, India, whose rise has been closely followed here and in her home country. But bloggers of all stripes are having a field day with Nooyi's speech.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: columbiau; indranooyi; pepsi; pepsico; weblogs
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1 posted on 05/21/2005 12:33:45 PM PDT by Cableguy
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To: Cableguy

We don't FIND victims, the MSM and the Dems do that.

The victims find us, through their stupidity, or through their evil.


2 posted on 05/21/2005 12:37:35 PM PDT by BobL
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To: Cableguy

Obviously, the liberal Business Week would side with Pepsi who pays their bills via ads.


3 posted on 05/21/2005 12:37:45 PM PDT by Cableguy
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To: Cableguy
Inept? Insulting and contemptible is more like it.
4 posted on 05/21/2005 12:38:41 PM PDT by CasearianDaoist
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To: Cableguy
But it's a shame that one executive's carefully worded opinion at a college speech should prompt such a backlash, then a mea culpa. In today's world of blogs and instant communications, though, even mild criticism can become fodder for a cyber-conflagration.

Longing for the day when the rich and powerful liberals could spew their cavalier and trite vitriol in a circle jerk of back slapping agreement.

Alas, now the boorish masses have developed a megaphone and can be heard objecting from outside the palace gates.

5 posted on 05/21/2005 12:45:11 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Cableguy

The whole premise of this stupid speech is contrived and inept. Using the hand to make her point - but she has to pick 2 continents to leave out? Also - if she is speaking about continents, then she forgot to lump Canada & Mexico in with the US as the "strong middle finger".

She really had to think long & hard to come up with this analogy - that America is flipping the bird to the rest of the world.

Well, I've never like Pepsi's commercials from way back, never could put my finger on it, but I've always felt like they were being patronizing to me.

Maybe she should go back to business school - not very smart to offend more than half of your customers!


6 posted on 05/21/2005 12:46:23 PM PDT by alicewonders
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To: Cableguy
But it's a shame that one executive's carefully worded opinion at a college speech should prompt such a backlash, then a mea culpa.

No, it's not.

In today's world of blogs and instant communications, though, even mild criticism can become fodder for a cyber-conflagration.

Hyperbolic nonsense! We have the right to take issue with what a public figure has said in a public speech. Evidently Ms. Brady and her elitist Business Week colleagues think this right should be reserved to them and other members of the intelligentsia.

7 posted on 05/21/2005 12:46:23 PM PDT by aposiopetic
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To: Cableguy
Yo Indra...

You are a fool and a nitwit.

I have no Pepsi stock , but if I did it would have been sold a minute after reading that Post.
8 posted on 05/21/2005 12:47:27 PM PDT by mmercier (cultural gaps and shoe sizes)
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To: Cableguy
Victim?

Here we go,the old media trying to portray anyone, whose comments are challenged, as a victim.

I guess in a sense they are.They are victims of their own egos,a victim of their own "holier than though attitudes",a victim of their anti-American bias.

Hey Diane Brady,we'll keep pointing out the idiocy and lies of these "victims".

Anything we can do to help;)

9 posted on 05/21/2005 12:51:05 PM PDT by mdittmar (May God watch over those who serve,and have served, to keep us free.)
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To: Cableguy

Corporate pigs.


10 posted on 05/21/2005 12:51:50 PM PDT by rimmont
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To: Cableguy

If it weren't for the good old USA, Ms Nooyi would be stepping over some low caste begger on the streets of New Delhi. Immigrants, of all people, should not bite the hand that feeds them. (Not knowing that the US isn't a continent doesn't make her the brightest Indian in the land, either.)


11 posted on 05/21/2005 12:51:52 PM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: Cableguy

What a STUPID comment. This is no accident ... she sat down and said, "How can I say something insulting to the United States - the country that has allowed me to succeed far beyond my potential anywhere else - while leaving myself room to pretend I was misunderstood?"


12 posted on 05/21/2005 12:53:57 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm a shallow, demagoguic sectarian because it's easier than working for a living.)
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To: Cableguy

"The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively ......However, if used inappropriately -- just like the U.S. itself -- the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I'm talking about. . . ."

Yup, nothing insulting in that speech . . .


13 posted on 05/21/2005 12:56:42 PM PDT by onevoter
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To: Cableguy
Good post--thanks.

Brady does get in one semi-zinger, though:

Better to err on the side of caution, perhaps, especially in a company that hawks soft drinks and potato chips to young people.

But, as has been noted above (I especially liked dead's comment) the MSM cannot stand the fact that the bloggers and posters are doing the job that they should be doing.

14 posted on 05/21/2005 12:57:55 PM PDT by Pharmboy ("Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God")
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To: alicewonders

The meaning that I took from the woman's statement was that SHE gave the US the finger. As any good liberal would. And as her audience had been taught to do - flip off the US because it is basically such a terrible place.

The fact that everything the woman has, she has because this country gave her the opportunity.

Not that she would be appreciative or anything.

She probably got up one day thinking how clever her analogy would seem - possible next time she will think about what she is doing before she does it.

Why anyone would thinking flipping the bird as part of a speech would be well received, I cannot imagine. Regardless of the meaning we take from this, it is a rude gesture and one that would not be appreciated by anyone I know.


15 posted on 05/21/2005 1:01:08 PM PDT by SusaninOhio
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To: Cableguy
Amazing. The MSM just refuses to take any criticism or responsibility for their actions. They are the perfect victim.
16 posted on 05/21/2005 1:07:10 PM PDT by crazyhorse691 (We won. We don't need to be forgiving. Let the heads roll!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Cableguy
Pay attention Pesi. We're coming for the left loons.

They will all pay a high price. Just ask Dan Blather what it cost him.

17 posted on 05/21/2005 1:09:26 PM PDT by AZHua87 (Insurgent BloggerVet!)
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To: Cableguy

The Force of the Bloggers...mind boggling! :)


18 posted on 05/21/2005 1:10:08 PM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: Cableguy
Perhaps we should take a lesson from our Saudi "friends" and handle it their way.

RIYADH - Eighteen Saudi Muslim scholars and thinkers demanded Saturday that those involved in the alleged desecration of the Quran at the US detention facility of Guantanamo Bay be tried by an Islamic court. “It won’t do any good if the State Department (eventually) apologizes or if it rejects this act, or if its authors are tried,” they said in a statement obtained by AFP. “That would amount to throwing dust in the eyes as was the case in the trials of those who committed the crimes (of abusing prisoners at Iraq’s) Abu Ghraib jail ... The Islamic nation will not settle for less than the trial (of the Guantanamo culprits) by an Islamic court,” said the mostly Salafi signatories.

19 posted on 05/21/2005 1:22:57 PM PDT by Just A Nobody (I - L O V E - my attitude problem!)
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To: SusaninOhio
Our index, or pointer finger, is Europe. Europe is the cradle of democracy and pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business.

As I understand my world history, Old Europe ran off our freedom-loving ancestors with their monarchies and totalitarianism. I can't think of any meaningful democracy or republic from the time of Athens to the American Revolution.

Didn't our republic start before the French Revolution?

Or do I really need to go back and crack the books?

20 posted on 05/21/2005 1:23:37 PM PDT by Night Hides Not
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