Pepsi Chief Indra Nooyi apologises

Pepsi Chief and Indian born American Indra Nooyi has posted a public explanation and apology on the Pepsico website.

This follows the storm created amongst American right wing bloggers regarding her recent speech at Columbia university comparing the US to the middle finger. 

Pepsi clearly fears it may lose some fizz because of the statements of its Indian born CFO and president Indra Nooyi.

In a bid to control damage, the company has posted Nooyi's apology on its website. Nooyi says "I regret any confusion or concern that I may have inadvertently created. As I shared with the audience at Columbia, this country that I am proud and honored to call home is a "promised land" that I love dearly. I would never say or do anything to detract from our great nation and its people who have done so much for so many, including myself."

Indra Nooyi speech which she had made at the Columbia Business School MBA recognition ceremony - has also been posted on the company website.

In her statement on the Pepsi website she clarified that  "I refer to North America and particularly the US as the middle finger because it is the longest and anchors every function the hand performs. The middle finger also is key to all the fingers working together effectively. That is how I view America's place of importance in the world."

But there are many Americans who have lashed out at what they call,  the cultural insenstivity of her metaphor.

One blogger noted that "I have no knowledge of Ms Nooyi's character, but it seems unlikely that one can climb to the top of Pepsico without the ability to grasp and accomodate the cultural sensitivities of an international audience. Surely Ms Nooyi understood, prior to accepting the engagement, that Columbia's is among the most cosmopolitan of the premier business school programs. Of the class she addressed, 28% were not even Americans to begin with."

There are few bloggers who have stated that they will not be consuming pepsi products.

Interestingly, the blog site Powerline, which was flooded with bloggers earlier in the week criticizing her speech now carries note saying that , Post Nooyi's statement and speech on the Pepsi website, a third of the readers have written to comment that, they did not find Nooyi's remarks objectionable. 

 

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