The Pepsi cheaters
ONCE EVERY WEEK or so, somebody somewhere posts an image to the Web so fraught that it immediately drives the clattering classes to their keyboards. Hyperlinks, grappling-hook-like, are flung across the void from website to website; commentary is extruded spontaneously; and just like that, a pseudo-event has transpired.
Last week, one such happening was kick-started by the appearance of a user-friendly photo and diagram (left, above and below) explaining how to cheat at
For a chance at a free song from the music download service, buy a specially marked bottle of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, or Sierra Mist. The underside of one out of every three caps of these bottles bears the words "ONE FREE SONG"; the losing caps read "PLEASE PLAY AGAIN." When John Gales, a 19-year-old college student from Tampa, discovered that he could tilt the unopened bottle, peer under the cap, and see whether or not the word "AGAIN" appeared, he graciously decided to spread the wealth. So he diagrammed the stunt and posted it to his Mac-user website, MacMerc.com. By the middle of last week, the site had become so popular he removed everything from it except the page with diagram. Now, that's the Pepsi spirit.
