Pepsi Cola recently apologized to Icelander Egill Viðarsson for using his photo in an international campaign for Pepsi Max without his permission.
The letter, addressed to Frank Cassata, a friend of Egill’s who noticed the photo, reads:
“Hi Frank,
Please accept our apologies for not contacting you regarding the recent use of your image.
Please pass on our apologies to Egil [sic]. Hopefully we haven’t caused any harm or embarrassment, that certainly was not our intention. The image was such a classic that we just had to share.
We’ve enclosed a couple of our vintage t-shirts for Egil and yourself.
Thanks for your continued support.
Pepsi Max Team”
The image was take in Denmark at the Roskilde Music Festival in 2006.
Egill told visir.is that the case was closed and that he was happy to receive the letter, as well as two vintage Pepsi t-shirts and two liters of Pepsi for the image. Egill also said he was happy that the photo had been used everywhere and had even been used in a BBC comedy show, in a joke about Eyjafjallajökull volcano, even though the BBC didn’t know that the photo was of an Icelander.
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