7UP To Pull TV Ad Under Pressure from Human Rights Groups  May
24, 2002  Los Angeles - Under pressure from Stop Prisoner Rape,
a nonprofit human rights organization, and nearly 100 other
human rights, HIV/AIDS, prison rights, and sexual violence
organizations, Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. has decided to stop
airing a national television commercial that makes light of rape
in prison.  The commercial, created by Young & Rubicam and
called Captive Audience, aired during youth-oriented programming
on MTV, UPN, FOX, and the WB. In the ad, a 7UP spokesperson
hands out cans of 7UP to prisoners. When he accidentally drops a
can, he quips that he won’t pick it up, implying that he would
risk being raped if he were to bend down. Later in the ad, a
cell door slams, trapping the spokesperson on a bed with another
man who refuses to take his arm from around him.  Philippa
Dworkin, vice president of corporate communications for Dr.
Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., told Lara Stemple, executive director of
SPR, that the ad would be taken