Semi-lost media, Madonna, and soda fans unite: Our time has finally come. It’s been a long 34-year wait, but we did it. We’ve finally seen Madonna’s 1989 Pepsi commercial on television again.
At Tuesday night’s MTV VMA awards, the unimaginable actually happened and the holy grail of long-lost Pepsi commercials finally saw the light of day. Yes, that is a thing, and yes I have a very robust social life that absolutely includes other, real, people. Thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, enough about me. Here’s the YouTube of the ad so you can finally see it for yourself:
Madonna took to Twitter (#NeverCallItX) to thank Pepsi for finally airing it 34 years after it was initially canceled. (Hold that thought.)
“34 years ago I made a commercial with Pepsi to celebrate the release of my song Like a Prayer,” she wrote. “The commercial was immediately canceled when I refused to change any scenes in the video where I was kissing a black saint or burning crosses. So began my illustrious career as an artist refusing to compromise my artistic integrity.”
“Artists are here to disturb the peace,” the icon added.
It still makes no sense to this day that 1989’s morality police demanded the ad, which only aired for about a month, be pulled after the music video for Like A Prayer was released:
In the video, Madonna did two things to piss people off: She made out with a Black Saint (played by Leon) in a church, and she danced in front of burning crosses. It was a big deal in Bush Sr.’s America. Per ETOnline:
Religious groups called for a boycott, with Pope John Paul II even speaking out against it. “The video is a blasphemy and insult because it shows immorals inside a church,” Italian Roman Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei said at the time.
Within days of protests and complaints, Pepsi was forced to drop the ad and ultimately cancel its deal with Madonna. “It may go down as one the most expensive advertising blunders ever,” host John Tesh reported on ET soon after.
All I can say is, that it’s pretty rich for a man who we’ve since learned covered up a multitude of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church to speak out about a harmless music video that dared offend his hypocritical sensibilities. However, in 1989, that wasn’t as well known, so whoever screamed the loudest from their platform typically got their way. As a result, Madonna lost this one, and the Moral Majority had their way.
The ramifications of the music video controversy were relatively far-reaching: Madonna’s initial deal with Pepsi included sponsoring her Blond Ambition World Tour, which they pulled out of after the manufactured outrage, and the ad never saw the light of day again. That is, until 34 years later when Pepsi decided that it was time to let bygones be bygones and unleashed it unto the world once more. I should note that according to at least one source, she got to keep the money in 1989, so really, she didn’t lose entirely, did she?
Regardless, it was good to see Madonna’s lost media finally come to the surface once more. It was stupid when it was canceled in 1989. Besides, as we all know, there were far worse brand-damaging Pepsi ads in the brand’s future. By comparison, Madonna’s seems almost quaint in retrospect.
(Featured Image: WMG)
