Pepsi and Dead Babies
I had read about it as an example of where “conspiracy theories” intersect with marketing: “Pepsi is made with dead babies”. What an amazing proposition! Nonsensical, yet… Coca-Cola is made from a secret recipe; Pepsi is its competition; we don’t really know what is in these ubiquitous drinks made of brown liquid, whose brands are everywere around the world; and then, because it really doesn’t make any sense, we briefly imagine it as a confirmation of absurdity: large industrial tanks with countless dead babies infusing in brown water… It still makes no sense, but can one really forget such an image? I doubt it would have ever occurred to me, despite my vivid imagination, but now it’s there; even as an example of the most outrageous thing ever said, the image is still there in my brain. And with more or less intensity, mostly unconsciously, won’t it influence me a little bit the next time I have to choose between Pepsi and Coke?
“Don’t think of a pink elephant.” The inability of the brain not to picture something that is said, even negatively, is well known. The ability of some images to impress our brain more than others, regardless of their truth, is also appearant.
- [ ] Can it be quantified? Analyzed? look to advertisement theory?
- [ ] cf in [[Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett]] the part about vertical symmetry and fish; that is one relevant fact.
Could it be the Coca-Cola Company, paying one of these rogue PR firms, who would have spread such efficient nonsense? There is also the fact that “dead babies”, in the US cultural context, triggers association with the heated issue of abortion. I hadn’t realized that initially, since I am not from that context, even though I am familiar with large parts of it, am not deeply involved in some of its important issues (that are less interesting to me).
But when I researched this recently, for the sake of this project, I found out a much more tangible connection…
It so happens that, factually, that in 1973, cells from the kidney of an aborted or miscarried (it is unclear) human embryo were cloned for medical research, under the name HEK-293 (Human Embryonic Kidney). This immortalised cell line, as it is called, as since been used very widely for many kinds of research, including by a company called Senomyx which produced sweeteners (depositing a patent in 2008 that mentions HEK-293), PepsiCo having contracted Senomyx in 2010 to “explore the development of new sweeteners and flavor enhancers”. A religious sounding advocacy group called for a boycott of Pepsi based on the claim that Senomyx used “aborted fetal cell lines to test their product”, and in 2012 PepsiCo folded under that pressure and issued ass-covering statements, breaking their four-year contract with Senomyx. (need ref)
Not exactly dead babies macerating in melasses, but almost… not. This being said, it doesn’t really matter. Even unvalidated, once you have imagined the picture, which is necessary to evaluate it, it has existed in some capacity, and it will persist. Does it persist less vividly now that I’ve explored it more in details? I think so, which would be an argument in favor of academic research. A counter argument would be that having to explore all kinds of crazy crap like that would fill up one’s agenda; much more efficient to create your own competing images?…
Stories that exist without being true are potentials of our narrative brains. Once activated, that cannot unhappen, even if we can establish it to be “false”: not reality.