It’s the 20th anniversary of the release of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” this month. If you remember correctly, the song didn’t premier in the traditional format, it premiered as a much hyped two-minute Pepsi TV ad. Madonna was paid $5 million for the ad campaign that was supposed to launch Pepsi ahead of Coke in the battle for top cola.
But within 48-hours of it’s premier, the ad was pulled, never to be aired again. The full-length music video for “Like a Prayer”, with it’s controversial religious imagery, caused such an uproar among influential church circles, that Pepsi chose to shelf the pricey campaign instead of upsetting these religious groups.
The video opens with Madonna fleeing the scene of a young woman’s murder. She runs into a church and prays before a statue of a saint, played by a black actor, before flashbacks reveal she witnessed the attack, carried out by a white man. But an innocent black man (the saint’s double) is arrested. There are burning crosses and Madonna suffers stigmata before heading off to put right this miscarriage of justice.
Within hours of the premier, the complaints started coming in about the portrayal of Jesus (whom viewers assumed the saint to be) as a black man being kissed by Madonna. The religious groups threatened to boycott Pepsi.
A spokesman for Pepsi said told the BBC, “While our commercial bore no resemblance to the video, many people who were offended by the video made no distinction between the two. We felt that the only appropriate step under the circumstances was to immediately stop airing the commercial.”
Five millions big ones went down the tube (and into Madonna’s pocket) for Pepsi. It seems ridiculous to say, but they really didn’t have a choice did they? You don’t want to piss off “Big Religion”. After all, they do run America.
{ 0 comments… add one now }
{ 1 trackback }