From USA Today:

'Some 20 teens sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, which accuses them of unauthorized downloads, will appear in a Pepsi-Cola (PEP) ad that kicks off a two-month offer of up to 100 million free — and legal — downloads from Apple's iTunes, the leading online music seller. The sassy ad, to be seen by Super Bowl's 88 million viewers on Feb 1, is a wink at the download hot button.'

'Annie Leith, a 14-year-old from Staten Island, appears with other downloaders in the ad, which features music by Green Day. The band cut a special version of the 1966 Bobby Fuller Four hit I Fought the Law for the ad, by BBDO, New York. In the ad, Leith holds a Pepsi and proclaims: "We are still going to download music for free off the Internet.'"

The ad will be shown during the US Superbowl, which has a TV audience there approaching 90 million, in the beginning of February. The article also reports that the RIAA is all for the ad.

While I haven't seen the ad, I really can't make the connection with how this ad is going to help change the ambivalence evidenced in the US about file sharing. Giving away 100 million free, legal songs will only reinforce the idea that music is free, and the statement made by Annie Leith makes a very clear statement that will remain in people's minds long after the context of the ad is gone. Maybe this is yet another piece of evidence that we're living in some bizarre parallel universe?

This is article is republished from MakyPress (Spanish). The original article is from USA today (English). See also the article from PeriodistaDigital (Spanish)

EEUU: LA RIAA DENUNCIA A LOS USUARIOS Y PEPSI LOS CONTRATA, POR
MAKYPRESS

(MakyPress) Varios usuarios de programas de pares (P2P) que en su
momento fueron denunciados(1) por la RIAA han sido contratados
por Pepsi según consta en una noticia publicada por USA
Today(2).

                             .....                              

La multinacional ha decidido contratar a 20 jóvenes denunciados
por la RIAA para anunciar una promoción de Pepsi que ofrece a
través de Internet. Con la frase "Vamos a seguir descargando
música gratis a través de Internet", los jóvenes contratados
protagonizan un anuncio sobre su última promoción, en la que
regalan descargas musicales de iTunes.

El anuncio será emitido el próximo 1 de febrero en la SuperBowl
(la misma que vetó por autocensura la emisión del anuncio contra
Bush(3) que ganó el concurso de MoveOn), y se estima que podrán
verlo 88 millones de personas.