A Wingman for Your iPhone

A Wingman for Your iPhone

A look at the new sex-soaked iPhone app from Pepsi.

Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 5:44pm

This month, Pepsi's energy drink Amp launched a controversial new iPhone app aimed at helping users pick up women. The Big Money's Chadwick Matlin logs on to "Amp Up Before You Score" in this installment of Broadbrand.

  • Chadwick Matlin is the staff reporter for The Big Money. He can be reached at Chadwick.Matlin@gmail.com and—surprise!—on Twitter.
  • Win Rosenfeld is the multimedia producer for The Big Money.
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Submitted by dan.mitchell on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 4:50pm.

Just for instance...

Are there really guys out there who will actually use this app? They'll look at it a few times, maybe think it's funny, and move on to the next one. And never once be reminded that they need to quench their thirst or dose up on kiddie speed.

But this report breaks down all the functions as if they were actually useful. For instance, the New York Times headlines for International Girl (or whatever she is). Really? Or the bragging diary. From this report, I feel like I am to imagine young men entering into long-term, highly engaged interaction with this thing, using it as a real piece of fairly complex chick-bagging software. A sex PIM. And I just don't see that happening. Because it doesn't make sense.

(Disclosure: I write for The Big Money.)

Submitted by dan.mitchell on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 4:51pm.

stupid sells?

For another take, see this item I wrote for The Big Money last week...

http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/daily-bread/2009/10/15/pepsis-bumbling-...

I'm not sure what to make of this report. It seems sort of bloodless. It mentions the sexism several times (though, surprisingly, not the puerility or the banality), but seems, despite all that, to applaud the app. It hints that that the app is effective, but it doesn't quite say why, other than vaguely and baselessly suggesting that because the app doesn't have anything to do with the product itself, it works. Oh, and also: sex sells. Which it sometimes does, but that doesn't make every iteration of sex-based marketing either effective or laudable.

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