Stupid ads have existed since the dawn of advertising, but so far 2013 is turning out to be the year of the poorly thought out commercial, with Tyler, The Creator’s Mountain Dew spot being just the latest example. Days after Hyundai pulled an ad parodying suicide, and few weeks after McDonald's yanked a regional subway poster that parodied depressed women, you thought advertisers would take a clue, right? Wrong. PepsiCo.’s ad for Mountain Dew is a double whammy of stupid – managing to offend black nationwide. The ad features a battered woman, being faced with a lineup of black suspects and a talking goat, who keeps threatening the her and making remarks like "Keep ya mouth shut." Yes, that is as cringe-worthy as it sounds.

The ad was pulled soon after the soft drink giant realised the backlash they were facing over it and Pepsi sent in a statement to USA Today, apologizing for the blunder: "We apologize for this video and take full responsibility. We have removed it from all Mountain Dew channels, and Tyler is removing it from his channels, as well." Some critics don’t think that’s good enough, however. Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News, a research company that monitors developments in African-American marketing and media, called for a company-wide investigation and overhaul of Pepsi’s media strategy: "Given their poor record of marketing to African Americans, and the hundreds of millions blacks spend with the company, there needs to be an investigation and a plan that is made public on how this will be avoided in the future."

It seems somewhat unlikely that the corporation will heed his advice.

Tyler, The Creator, Nokia Theater
Tyler, The Creator's Pepsi spot definitely didn't go down as planned.