By
Noureldein Ghanem
Pepsi Masr [Pepsi Egypt] has provoked ire in Egypt after releasing a new TV ad with the "insensitive" slogan "Stay thirsty", featuring some of the country's top actors, singers, and football players, including Amr Diab, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and others.
Days before the TV ad was aired during the late hours of Saturday night [May 25], huge banners filled the streets of Cairo, Giza and other major governorates in Egypt that showed Pepsi logo and the slogan "Stay thirsty", sparking anger among Egyptians who are witnessing a brutal siege and genocidal Israeli war on Palestinians just across the country's north-eastern border.
Boycotters quickly responded with a counter campaign on social media, in which they used the Palestinian resistance symbol of the inverted red triangle, the watermelon and the slogan "Stay a loser, I'm not thirsty", referring to Pepsi ad.
They also launched a massive unfollowing of the stars featured in the ad, while calling for boycotts against them as well.
"Those [stars] are only in it [the ad] for their benefit. They don't care about the boycott or the Palestinians and their struggle… The people [Egyptians] don't accept this, we will keep boycotting because this is harming our Palestinian brothers," Hesham, a 43-year-old taxi driver, told TRT World.
Elham Fouad, a 55-year-old woman, told TRT World ,"I think they [the stars] shouldn't have done this because they have influence. This shouldn't have happened amid the boycott and the tragedies against Palestinians."
Local brands in Egypt, like SinaCola, seized the chance to take a dig at Pepsi and boost their own sales, using the slogan, "We won't keep you thirsty."
The Pepsi ad aired almost at the same time of Israel's new massacre in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, in which Tel Aviv killed at least 45 Palestinians, wounded 250 others, including burning alive many Palestinians and decapitating babies and minors.
Drop in sales and discounts
Pepsi, along with other global brands — including the likes of Coca Cola, Starbucks, McDonalds and others — have been met with massive boycott in Egypt and other Muslim nations such as Türkiye, Pakistan, Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq and elsewhere over their perceived support for Israel and its brutal war on the blockaded Palestinians.
Merchants have pointed out drop in the sales of Pepsi and Coca-Cola, especially in the villages and the provinces of Upper and Lower Egypt, due to the broader boycott campaigns.
Facing boycott, Pepsi has been announcing temporary discounts. One such measure took place in March, which included a 20 Egyptian pounds [EGP] discount on each box of the 330 mm can.
In 2018, Pepsi acquired SodaStream, an Israeli-based soft drinks manufacturer, sparking controversy and provoking call by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a Palestinian-led campaign against Israeli products, for boycott of its products.
