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Pepsi Responds to Emergence of 1984 Jackson Ad Mishap Footage

7/16/09, 4:04 pm EST

Yesterday, Us Weekly unearthed footage of Michael Jackson being severely burned while filming a 1984 Pepsi commercial in Los Angeles. Today, a representative for Pepsi told EW’s Music Mix that the company had no hand in releasing the video.

“We don’t know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we’d question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget,” Pepsi spokeswoman Nicole Bradley told EW. “We were grateful for Michael’s recovery and for the chance to continue working with him on a number of successful projects. As for Michael as an artist, his music helped us define a generation and, like everyone else, we’re deeply saddened by his passing.”

The fiery accident and its painful aftermath is often cited as the start of Jackson’s dependence on prescription drugs. Jackson suffered second- and third-degree burns to his face and scalp, and sought prescription drugs during his recovery. The powerful sedative Propofol is at the forefront of the investigation into Jackson’s June 25th death from sudden cardiac arrest. As Rock Daily previously reported, Jackson’s nurse/nutritionist said the star desperately sought the drug in the months before he died.

As for whether Pepsi will demand for the controversial ad footage to be removed from the Net, the company says that their hands might be tied. “We don’t know where it came from. We don’t know what that footage is. It’s 25 years ago,” the Pepsi rep told EW. “We don’t know who owns it, so we have no recourse as far as I know. I can only tell you what I know. We didn’t put it up and we don’t know where it came from.”

Related Stories:

Michael Jackson Pepsi Ad Footage Unearthed From 1984 Shoot
Investigators Reportedly Treating Jackson Death As a Homicide
Michael Jackson Remembered: Inside Rolling Stone’s Special Issue


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Comments

Pepsi PR department | 7/16/2009, 4:15 pm EST

Danger, danger! Bad publicity … We need some positive spin, and quick!

Anonymous | 7/16/2009, 4:18 pm EST

It’s interesting to note that MJ’s comeback shows were billed as ‘THIS IS IT’. Which reminds me of Coke’s old ‘COKE IS IT’ campaign.

And all of the THIS IS IT imagery was Red and White, Coke’s signature colors.

Anonymous | 7/16/2009, 4:28 pm EST

“We don’t know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we’d question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget”

I’m sure there will continue to be Pepsi ads in US Weekly, the outlet that put the footage out yesterday.

To Big Bad Brownroy Lee | 7/16/2009, 5:37 pm EST

Easy to wish someone dead behind the anonymity of the Internet, ain’t it?

TSTARK1 | 7/17/2009, 12:14 am EST

It’s gonna get a little warmer this summer because whoever made money off of that footage this week is gonna burn in hell for it.

Pepsi la pew | 7/17/2009, 3:47 am EST

Publicity is publicity, if no one made money up front for coming forward then they must be hoping payoff is in the profits. I love cherry pepsi.

Cliff Branch | 7/17/2009, 2:10 pm EST

This should be on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Anonymous | 7/18/2009, 7:39 am EST

The person who leaked the video was working on the commercial when it happened. He’s one of the people in the video who rushes to Michael to put out the flames. He’s been waiting 25 years for this big payoff …

Kathy | 7/18/2009, 1:51 pm EST

Well, Pepsi is saddened at Michaels’ death, too bad Pepsi pulled him from his ads when the going got tough later in his life. Gee, Pepsi, I guess back then you thought that using him would detract from your soda being one of the leading obesity/diabetes causes in the US.

Kathy | 7/18/2009, 1:51 pm EST

Well, Pepsi is saddened at Michaels’ death, too bad Pepsi pulled him from his ads when the going got tough later in his life. Gee, Pepsi, I guess back then you thought that using him would detract from your soda being one of the leading obesity/diabetes causes in the US.

carmen dbanks | 7/18/2009, 3:33 pm EST

mike you let me make it threw a abusesive time with my father. thank you far your music. love always cb

ananymous | 7/18/2009, 4:06 pm EST

we don’t even know what the autopsy results are but yet every network in the u.s. media is doing everything possible to try to convince the american public he died because he was addicted to drugs. digging this video up is consistent with that thought. has anyone thought that he borrowed a loan against his share of the beatles catalog and now sony/atv is potentially in a position to buy his share. google it. famous man dies sudden. company a benefits financially. think about it: why is it sooo important for the media to keep trying to convince us that he died of a addiction to a drug overdose? if he was addicted to drugs, don’t you think the tabloids would have been all over making fun of him about that too for the last 20 years….? it doesn’t add up. there is a reason for everything and trust me, there is a reason why this video from 25 years just ‘all of a sudden’ popped up out of thin air……

Drain Bamage | 7/18/2009, 5:45 pm EST

“We don’t know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we’d question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget”

That quote pretty much sums it up for me. Sure, whoever leaked this footage is deplorable, but what about the media milking it for all its worth?

I just think its funny that we question wether or not it is in good taste, yet that doesn’t stop RS from capatilizing off of it. Good job guys, I’ll have to make sure to check out that Goldman Sachs article while I’m at it. You seem like just the people I should be I should be taking my moral cues from.

Oh yeah, I would also like to congragulate you on your endless coverage of watered down pop music. That’s the kind of hard edged journalism we’ve come to expect from your mag these days.

RS is a shadow of its former self. The bands that should be on the cover barely get a blurp buried between the shameless ads for Axe and Captain Morgans Rum.

Its official – rock is dead.

Ambrosia | 7/18/2009, 9:48 pm EST

Good one Kathy!

Anonymous | 7/19/2009, 10:28 pm EST

if you half his age when he died you get the day this event happened. so this looks like a conspiracy that mj died on that date and half his life was lived as an imposter/s

maggielindia | 7/20/2009, 9:13 am EST

^^^^Cool Guys!!!
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annoymous Hollywood stage tech | 7/20/2009, 8:47 pm EST

I actually met the special effects man that was responsible for igniting Michael Jackson’s hair on fire at that Pepsi commercial, and he’s still working.

fooled | 10/17/2009, 12:04 pm EST

compare the ears before pepsi accident 1984 and after : we have been fooled by an imposter for more than 20years!

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