Before I go on, let me disclose. I happen to know Mads, who did a great deal of work on www.pepsimax.dk, so in that respect I’m biased. When that is said, I wouldn’t say or write anything I don’t believe, regardless of who I know.

A bit of background (I’ll keep it brief):

1. Pepsi launch www.pepsimax.dk, A site that, for the main part, displays content from Youtube, Flickr and Twitter in which Pepsi is mentioned
2. Users who don’t like the idea unleash a shitstorm of spiteful tweets (because they can. It’s part of the game, I guess. I seem to remember the same thing happening to Skittles a while back) against the site, but as it happens with such things, it quickly settles at a reasonable level
3. ‘Experts’ (in this case consumer law types and journos) try to conjure up some sort of problem with Pepsi using other people’s tweets (not their pics or vids, though. Just the tweets).

It baffles me. Could we all just take a freaking chill pill and start enjoying the endless possibilities of social media (in whichever form we like) instead of going off on paranoid rants about privacy everytime someone comes up with an idea?

And could we PLEASE be less influenced by whether or not we like the product and look at the solution in itself? I mean, if this had been UNICEF or Barack Obama or even Apple, integrating social media the way Pepsi did, we’d be cheering, joyful to be included in their presence online.

Seriously, if you wanna keep everything to yourself, protect your tweets, it’s easy! And if you don’t wanna advertise for Pepsi, don’t write flattering tweets about the product with the word Pepsi in them!

Sorry, this was too brief and not structured enough, but I just needed to let out a bit of steam.