There’s a lot of buzz about the Pepsi Refresh project and how they’re pulling their usual investment in Super Bowl Advertising and moving funds to a broader social strategy. It’s exciting news for people like me who work on big brands and are trying to bring perspective to the old-school Mad Men wanna-bes who still crowd this industry while the world moves away from traditional one-way advertising to deeper experiences. But, even as Pepsi tries to break new ground by cancelling their standard multi-million dollar 30-second football spot, their television ad agency proceeds to fumble the ball by blatantly ripping off a brilliant YouTube video to sell the new social initiative.

Here’s the Pepsi Refresh ad:

And the original music video that Pepsi “Refreshed”:

Much more magical, don’t you think?

Imagine if they contacted SOUR and worked with them to take SOUR’s concept to a whole new level, as opposed to just blatantly copying it. Wouldn’t that be more in line with the ideals of the new Pepsi Refresh Project? Imagine the positive wave of support from SOUR’s fans, and the 1 million+ other viewers of this video who surely would like the band to succeed. Please agencies — it’s not about you anymore. It’s not about your ads. It’s about the customer; the consumer; the user; the publich; the individual. It’s about The Human.