PepsiCo has managed to avoid a threatened boycott after it agreed to donate millions of dollars to non-profit youth organisations.
A group called Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, led by the rap impresario, Russell Simmons, had called for a boycott of Pepsi last week after the company had run a commercial featuring Ozzy Osbourne, having terminated its endorsement deal with the rap artist, Ludacris, over complaints about the rapper’s song lyrics. The group had accused Pepsi of double standards because of the language used regularly in the documentary series, The Osbournes, about Ozzy Osbourne and his family.
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Jody Miller, a spokesperson for Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said the deal with Pepsi had not been finalised but that a boycott was no longer called for. Dave DeCecco of Pepsi-Cola North America said the agreement with the group was an extension of longstanding community relations and urban marketing programmes.
