7UP To Pull TV Ad Under Pressure, Media Daily News, May 24, 2002.

Facing pressure from Stop Prisoner Rape, a nonprofit human rights organization, and nearly 100 other human rights, HIV/AIDS, and sexual violence groups, Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. has said it will stop airing a national television commercial that, according to SPR, makes light of rape in prison. The commercial, created by Young & Rubicam and called "Captive Audience," aired during youth-oriented programming on MTV, UPN, FOX, and the WB. In the ad, a 7UP spokesperson hands out cans of 7UP to prisoners. When he accidentally drops a can, he quips that he won't pick it up. Later in the ad, a cell door slams, trapping the spokesperson on a bed with another man who refuses to take his arm from around him. Philippa Dworkin, vice president of corporate communications for Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., told Lara Stemple, executive director of SPR, that the ad would be taken off the air in response to the protest.